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Florida rally falls short in loss at LSU

 
Published Feb. 28, 2016

BATON ROUGE, La. — Antonio Blakeney scored a career-high 32 and hit eight straight free throws in the last 28 seconds as LSU ended a three-game losing streak with a 96-91 victory over struggling Florida on Saturday night.

John Egbunu scored a career-high 22 for the Gators (17-12, 8-8 SEC) but missed seven free throws as UF lost its third straight, its longest losing streak of the season. Kasey Hill scored 16 and Devin Robinson 15 for the Gators, who were among the last four in on ESPN's most recent NCAA Tournament projection.

Ben Simmons had 22 points and 11 rebounds for the Tigers (17-12, 10-6), who maintained an inside track to a double-bye in the conference tournament by remaining in the top four in the league standings with two regular-season games left.

Tim Quarterman scored 15 for LSU, which shot 56 percent and led by as many as 18 in the second half before Florida, which had a 62-point second half, got as close as one basket in the final 30 seconds.

The Tigers, who led 40-29 at halftime, went up 58-40 on Blakeney's layup as he was fouled by Hill with 13:40 left.

Florida methodically trimmed its deficit, and Robinson's left wing 3 made it 83-78 with 1:06 left. While Quarterman missed four of eight free throws in the last 1:05, UF's Hill hit his second 3 of the game and followed with a three-point play on a driving layup as he was fouled to trim LSU's lead to 90-88 with 19 seconds left.

But Blakeney made his last six free throws to ice it.