BATON ROUGE, La. - Maybe Marcus Thornton had an extra helping of Wheaties on Tuesday morning.
Whether it was Wheaties, an extra nap or maybe just a feeling that he had to step up against a conference rival, it wasn't helpful for the Gators.
While Nick Calathes was good, scoring 12 points and dishing out six assists, Thornton was better, as he scored 32 points while sinking six 3-pointers. The senior guard led the No. 18 Tigers (24-4, 12-1 Southeastern Conference) to an 81-75 win against the Gators at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Tuesday night.
The Gators (21-7, 8-5 SEC) had four players score in double figures (Calathes, Chandler Parsons, Walter Hodge and Alex Tyus), but it was the big shots and consistent scoring of Thornton and Garrett Temple (21 points) that made the difference.
"We just played the best team in the league - on the road," UF coach Billy Donovan said. "LSU tonight was better than us."
While UF kept it close for the vast majority of the game - and even had a 41-37 halftime lead - LSU decided it had enough with 9:07 left in the game.
That's when the Tigers went up by 7, and they never looked back.
The closest the Gators would get was within 3 points, but the game was never in doubt as Thornton then came back with two free throws to make it 69-64.
"We could never really get over the hump," Donovan said.
UF played one of its more complete games of the year, but LSU simply had too many guns for the Gators to handle.
Whether it was Thornton, Temple or Tasmin Mitchell (12 points), UF didn't have the ammunition to keep up.
"We didn't execute our offense well toward the end," freshman guard Erving Walker said. "I don't think we were tired. They just outplayed us toward the end."
At the half, the Tigers knew they were in for a ballgame with the unranked Gators.
The teams went back and forth for the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Walker hit a three only to have Temple follow it up with a midrange jump shot.
But then LSU took over in the final 10 minutes, and those are 10 minutes the Gators would rather forget.
"In the second half, they came with more energy," Hodge said.
"We just have to execute at the end and play hard."
With the win, LSU clinched at least a share of the SEC regular-season title.
As for the Gators, this loss makes Selection Sunday a whole lot more interesting than they would like, as they are not a lock for the NCAA Tournament just yet.
It's not going to get any easier either, as two of UF's final three regular-season games are against SEC East contenders Tennessee and Kentucky.
The third is a trip to Mississippi State, the second place team in the West.
