The LSU men’s basketball team had an opportunity to start Southeastern Conference play 3-0 for the first time since 2006, coming off a road victory against Vanderbilt on Jan. 2 and 18-point win against No. 9 Kentucky on Tuesday.
But then the Tigers (9-6, 2-1 SEC) ran into a hungry Florida team and didn’t do much to help themselves in their fourth true road game of the season on Saturday afternoon.
“[Florida] had a lot of momentum, came out really gunning [and] coming after us,” said senior guard Keith Hornsby in a postgame news conference. “We didn’t respond exactly how we would have wanted to.”
Although he picked up his 12th double-double of the season, freshman forward Ben Simmons recorded all eight of his turnovers in the second half and received very little offensive production from his teammates in a 68-62 loss to the Gators (10-5, 2-1 SEC) at the O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida.
Including a 14-for-16 clip from the free throw line, Simmons led all scorers and rebounders with 28 points and 17 boards. Hornsby, though, was the only other Tiger who finished in double figures.
Hornsby – along with junior guard Quarterman in the first half and sophomore forward Craig Victor in the second half – was plagued by foul trouble, forcing LSU coach Johnny Jones to mix up his lineups throughout.
In total, the Tigers finished the game shooting 35.7 percent from the field and 3-of-20 from beyond the arc. Florida wasn’t much more efficient offensively, finishing just 38.1 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from three-point territory.
But Jones commended the Gators, especially after they were blown out by Tennessee, 89-63, on Wednesday night.
“They’re a good basketball team,” Jones said at the news conference. “Unfortunately for them, they just had a bad night [against Tennessee] when things just didn’t go their way in Knoxville. Tonight, I thought they did an excellent job. It’s the same team that played the No. 1 team in the country that wound up losing a [six-point] ball game.”
LSU trailed throughout the game but inched as close as one point with little more than a minute remaining. But Simmons’ miscues and a clutch free throws from Florida redshirt sophomore center Charles Egbunu sealed the Tigers’ fate.
But the start wasn’t much better for the purple and gold.
Quarterman collected two fouls on back-to-back possessions in the first half, which came less than two minutes into the game. On top of that, Gator senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith scored nine of Florida’s first 11 points, giving it an 11-6 advantage at the first media timeout.
LSU shot just 5-of-15 from the field, including an 0-for-4 clip from three-point territory, midway through the first half. Florida also led the rebounding battle and dominated points in the paint up to that point, resulting in a 10-point lead at the 9:41 mark.
Despite the Gators’ 0-for-12 clip from trey in the first half, Florida maintained an advantage by attacking the paint and the glass, leading to 10 second-chance points before halftime. 
Still, the Tigers ended the first half on a 7-1 run to shrink a nine-point lead to 34-31 at the break.
“With the guys in foul trouble that we had, we felt like anything under 10 would be good for us because, at the time, Tim sat for 18 minutes and Keith sat for quite some time,” Jones said. “Both of those guys are really key elements for our team, and we had to play without them for a considerable amount of time.”
LSU opened the second half by cutting the lead to one point on Hornsby’s second bucket in two possessions. But the Gators responded by regaining a six-point lead by the next media timeout.
The Tigers trailed by as many as eight at 13:50 mark of the second half, but LSU rebounded with a 6-0 spurt to cut its deficit to two, starting with Blakeney’s three-pointer from the right corner. The Gators, though, wouldn’t pack it in, extending the lead back to six points.
Simmons led all scorers with 16 points by the under-eight timeout, but he held a 4-for-12 clip from the field and had five turnovers up to that point.
“I know I made a lot of plays where they didn’t turn out too well,” Simmons said at the news conference. “I got a lot of turnovers. There were a lot of plays down the stretch that were kind of my fault.”
After two free throws from Simmons, the Tigers got within two points with a little more than six minutes left, even after Victor left the game with two fouls, but Florida would surge to a 7-0 run, highlighted by junior forward Justin Leon’s second triple of the game.
Leon and Finney-Smith led the Gators with 14 points apiece, and Egbunu added 13 points to Florida’s efforts.
Simmons carried the Tigers down stretch, scoring the LSU’s final 12 points, but he was left without Victor for the final two minutes as he fouled with 2:07 left.
Simmons’ three-point play off an offensive rebound cut the lead to one with 1:12 left, but he committed his seventh and eighth turnovers on the next two possession to allow Florida to secure the victory. Simmons also fouled out in the closing seconds.
After the thrill of beating the Wildcats earlier this week, Simmons didn’t feel the Tigers had the energy it needed from opening tip in a hostile environment.
“I think we came out a lot stronger just because it’s a team like Kentucky, and it’s always a hyped up game,” Simmons said. “It’s always easier to play at home because you have all the support and then you come to Florida, where the fans are so close to you. I think that might have been a part of it. We got off to a slow start, and we didn’t have the energy coming into it.”