In the final seconds of the LSU Tigers (25-5, 15-2 SEC) final Southeastern Conference road game, the Tom Petty song “I Won’t Back Down” played through the loudspeakers in the O’Connell Center, and rang true as the Tigers didn’t back down, beating the Florida Gators (17-13, 9-8 SEC) in overtime 79-78.
The Tigers will finish 9-0 on the road in conference play for the first time since 1954, when they went 6-0. This was also LSU’s seventh overtime game, and brings their record in OT games to 5-2.
Sophomore guard Tremont Waters led the charge for the Tigers with 19 points, six assists, three rebounds and three steals in his first game back fully recovered from the illness that caused him to miss the Tennessee game and be limited in Saturday’s Alabama game.
Freshman forward Emmitt Williams had perhaps his best game as a Tiger with 13 points and 14 rebounds, good for his fourth double-double of the season. Freshman guard Javonte Smart continued his hot streak scoring adding 15 points and junior guard Skylar Mays poured in 11 points.
Florida senior guard Jalen Hudson played the best game of his career as a Gator without question, dropping 33 points on 11-for-20 shooting. Freshman forward Keyontae Johnson was second on the team in scoring with 15 points.
The Tigers didn’t struggle nearly as bad on the offensive side of the ball as they did in their previous matchup with Florida, going 8-for-12 from the floor in the first 10 minutes of the game.
Waters quickly got back to his scoring ways, starting the game 3-3, including a three pointer to give him seven points in a five minute span.
Williams gave the Tigers a nice spark off the bench as he’s shown the ability to do, going for 11 points and six rebounds in the first half, with three of those rebounds being on the offensive glass.
With 6:12 to go in the first, LSU had stretched their lead to 11, but the Gators stormed back in the final six minutes going on a 10-2 run to close out a first half that LSU seemed to be in control of.
The second half flip flopped as far as momentum goes, with Florida recovering from a poor shooting performance in the first half. The Gators took advantage of some costly LSU turnovers, and went 5-8 from three-point land in the first 10 minutes of the half.
Hudson came up huge for the Gators, going 7-10 from the field in the first 16 minutes of the first half. The Tigers struggled containing him from beyond the arc, with Hudson hitting three three’s in that stretch.
The score stayed within single-digits within the last 10 minutes of regulation, with either team being able to pull away, and the last 3 minutes proved to be as exciting as the Tigers season has been to this point.
With LSU leading by three, Hudson converted a layup to cut the lead to one, but Waters returned the favor by corralling his own miss and laying it in to bring the lead back to three. With 30 seconds to go, Waters drove the ball into the paint only to lose it and allow Hudson to get a wide-open breakaway dunk, making it a one-point game again.
Florida got the ball down one with 22 seconds to go, LSU went into a zone defense and the Gators were able to get an open three and drained it, giving them a two-point lead. But Waters ran the length of the floor and got a layup to fall to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Overtime started off well for the Tigers, as they ran out to a five-point lead, and didn’t let go of it, finishing the game 79-78 after Florida couldn’t get a shot off before the buzzer.
The Tigers will finish the regular season at home in the PMAC against the Vanderbilt Commodores (9-20, 0-16 SEC) on March 9 at 8 p.m.