Chinyelu's 19 points and 13 rebounds leads No. 2 Florida past LSU 79-65

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Rueben Chinyelu had a career-high 19 points to go with 13 rebounds and No. 2 Florida roared back from an eight-point second-half deficit to beat LSU 79-65 on Saturday night.

Thomas Haugh scored 16 points, Alijah Martin added 14 and Walter Clayton Jr. 13 for Florida (24-3, 11-3 SEC), which won its sixth straight.

LSU freshman Robert Miller III scored a career-high 19 points to go with 10 rebounds and was the big reason the Tigers (14-13, 3-11) looked poised to challenge Florida well into the second half.

Florida raced to a 29-15 lead during the opening 13 minutes. But LSU suddenly found its footing when Curtis Givens III hit a 3, sparking a stunning 22-2 run during the final 6:41 of the half.

Florida surged into the lead for good with a 15-2 run that gave the Gators a 53-48 lead. Chinyelu scored seven points during that spurt, including a put-back as he was fouled.

Florida played its third game without starting forward Alex Condon and backup Sam Alexis.

Takeaways

Florida: The Gators shot 7 of 22 from 3-point range, marking the first time in six games they did not hit as many as 10 3s. But they showed the ability to adjust and use their size advantage to dominate the paint, where they outscored LSU 44-24.

LSU: The Tigers are showing the ability to compete in spurts against the SEC's elite teams, but closing out such games has been another matter.

Key moment

Clayton's steal from Mike Williams III led to Martin's right-wing transition 3, which gave Florida a 69-59 lead with 4:16 to go.

Key stat

In addition to outrebounding LSU 48-33, Florida grabbed 19 offensive boards and converted those into 17 second-chance points.

Up next

Both teams return to action on Tuesday night, when Florida visits Georgia and LSU hosts No. 6 Tennessee.

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