With LSU athletic director Joe Alleva sitting courtside, No. 25 Florida shot a PMAC-record 19 3-pointers and routed LSU 106-71.
For the Tigers (9-10, 1-7 Southeastern Conference) it was their sixth straight loss of the season, dropping them below .500 in the regular season for the first time since 2011.
LSU coach Johnny Jones didn’t mince his words when talking about his team’s performance.
“Zero,” Jones said about positives resulting from this game. “The only thing that was positive was that people came to see us play tonight. We’ve got to get it figured out.”
After opening the game 8-of-12 from beyond the arc, Florida (15-5, 6-2 SEC) went into halftime with a 58-33 lead over the Tigers, the most points LSU has allowed in a half this season.
The dynamic shooting performance did not end there for the Gators.
Florida finished the game shooting 58 percent from three (19-of-33) and 56 percent (36-of-64) from the field.
LSU couldn’t keep up the pace, finishing 44 percent (28-of-64) from the field and 12 percent (2-of-17) from three.
Two games ago, Florida shot 0-of-17 from three against another SEC foe in South Carolina.
Jones said LSU tried to implement the same tactics as South Carolina, but ended up with different results.
“We had an opportunity to watch the video and tape,” Jones said. “Our mission was to make sure that we went out and tried to play that way and we did not as a group perform at that level.”
The Gators’ lead reached as high as 39 in the second half with 3:47 remaining.
The 35-point margin of defeat is also the largest home loss in LSU’s history and fourth 30-point loss of the season.
For Florida, forward Devin Robinson led all scorers with 24 points, shooting 9-of-15 from the field and 5-of-8 from three. Junior forward Duop Reath led LSU with 15 points and a 5-of-9 outing from the field.
The Tigers now travel to Lubbock, Texas on Saturday to take on Texas Tech in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge at 1 p.m.
“We certainly owe our fans an apology who came out to watch us tonight,” Jones said. “We did not represent those letters or colors in the fashion that I think makes us proud.”
