LSU interim head coach Butch Pierre is slowly making his case for removing the “interim” tag from his title. Four days after almost upseting then-No. 7 Tennessee, the Tigers (9-14, 2-7) earned Pierre his first career head coaching victory with an 85-73 road win against Florida (19-6, 6-4). The situation was eerily similar to this past season’s contest between LSU and Florida. In that game, the No. 3 Gators fell the Tigers in Baton Rouge, 66-56. Florida struggled from the field and hit only two of its 17 attempts from behind the 3-point arc. Wednesday’s game featured one of LSU’s best shooting performances of the season. LSU shot 60 percent from the field while holding Florida, which entered the game averaging 80 points per game, to 47 percent shooting. “It’s a great win in front of a hostile crowd,” Pierre said in a postgame interview. “I can’t expect more out of these kids.” The Tigers never trailed in the contest. LSU jumped out to an early 14-2 lead off a couple of dunks by junior center Chris Johnson and a 3-pointer by junior guard Marcus Thornton. The Tigers’ lead swelled to as many as 14 points, and the team was able to hold the Gators at bay the rest of the half to take an eight-point lead into halftime. Johnson and Thornton combined for 24 of LSU’s 41 first-half points. The Tigers shot 57 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes. The second half featured more of the same for the Tigers as they opened the period on a 9-2 scoring run. With just more than 11 minutes left in the second half, junior guard Garrett Temple left the game with an apparent lip injury. The Gators used Temple’s absence to cut LSU’s lead to four, but that would be the closest they would come to matching the Tigers’ score in the second half. When Temple returned, he sparked a 9-0 run that put the game out of reach for Florida. Five Tigers scored in double digits in the win. Freshman forward Anthony Randolph led all scorers with 22 points. He also added four rebounds and two blocks. Thornton, who entered the game first in the SEC in scoring, scored 20 points for the Tigers. Wednesday’s game marked the 14th time this season the Baton Rouge native has scored at least 20 in a game. Thorton has also hit the 20-point plateau seven times in the past eight games. Johnson added seven points to his total in the second half to finish the game with 19. He also dished out three assists, grabbed six rebounds and blocked four shots in the victory. After the game, Johnson was pleased with his team’s performance. “I love this team,” Johnson said. “I love these guys. They played hard tonight. We’re just going to follow through with what coach gave us. It’s helped these past two games so we’re just going to keep doing it.” Freshman guard Nick Calathes led Florida with 16 points. He also dished out five assists. Sophomore forward Dan Werner added 13 points and nine rebounds. LSU has seven Southeastern Conference games remaining, but Pierre said the team did not look at Wednesday’s game as a jumping off point for a long run to end the season. “These players are going through a lot handling all the adversity,” he said. “I’m excited for them.”
—-Contact Johanathan Brooks at [email protected]