Within the game’s first three minutes John Egbunu was already on the floor, laying out for a loose ball near the baseline.
Dorian Finney-Smith had just scored his fifth straight point, two of them coming after a Florida steal and a transition layup, and Justin Leon had already grabbed two of his six first-half rebounds.
There were steals, there were dunks, there were alley oops, and after and absence of it during Florida’s lifeless 14-point loss to Tennessee on Wednesday, there was defense.
Florida (10-5, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) showed few instances of lethargy in its 68-62 win over LSU on Saturday in the O’Connell Center.
“I don’t know what everybody was eating tonight,” guard Chris Chiozza said, whose team forced LSU into committing 17 turnovers. “But we need to keep eating it."
Perhaps the increased effort was due to the crowd of 11,350, the largest in the O’Connell center this season, who came mostly to see LSU’s hyped 6-foot-10 freshman forward Ben Simmons.
In 38 minutes, Simmons finished with 28 points, 17 rebounds, four assists and eight turnovers, his highest turnover total this season.
“If we don’t have those eight turnovers, we don’t win the game,” coach Mike White said of Simmons. “He’s really good. He’s a handful. It would have taken an extraordinarily physical effort — and it did — just to slow him down.”
Down by four points with one minute remaining, Simmons was fouled on a made layup after twice tipping LSU guard Keith Hornsby’s missed three-pointer.
On the Gators’ next possession, Egbunu’s jump hook with 49 seconds left gave UF a 65-62 lead.
Florida held LSU (9-6, 2-1 SEC) scoreless for the remainder of the game.
Egbunu had 13 points on five shots for the Gators, including two sets of made free throws — the first pair coming with 2:07 left in the game and the last two with 23 seconds remaining — to ensure Florida’s victory.
“That was huge. That was big,” White said of Egbunu, a 56.1 percent free-throw shooter on the season. “Just how we drew it up.”
Forwards Leon and Finney-Smith led UF with 14 points apiece — a career high for Leon — on a combined 10-of-17 shooting.
Florida also forced LSU — the SEC’s leader in field-goal percentage — into its second worst shooting game of the season (35.7 percent) and its second lowest point total of the season.
But despite Florida’s increased defensive effort, the Gators continued their struggles from behind the arc, shooting 16.7 percent and failing to make a three-pointer until the 16:46 mark of the second half.
“As we continue to go 17-of-30 (from the field) and 3-of-18 (from three), we can control how hard we play. It was going to take that type of effort just to have a chance,” White said, whose team plays Texas A&M on the road on Tuesday. “If we have a dip (in effort) in College Station, we have no chance.”
Follow Ian Cohen on Twitter @icohenb
UF center John Egbunu dunks during Florida’s 68-62 win over LSU on Jan. 9, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
