Castleton's 18 points helps send Florida past LSU

BATON ROUGE, La. -- — Colin Castleton scored 18 points, making a career-high 12 foul shots, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked five shots and Florida handed LSU its third-straight loss, 67-56 on Tuesday night.

The 6-foot-11 Castleton made a career-high 15 trips to the foul line and shot 3 of 6 from the field. Reserve Kowacie Reeves scored 11 points as the Gators (9-7, 2-2 SEC) saw eight players enter the scoring column.

Both teams recorded 19 field goals, including five each from beyond 3-point range, but the difference came at the foul line with Florida going 24 for 32 to 13 for 16 for host LSU (12-4, 1-3). Florida scored 23 points on 16 LSU turnovers.

KJ Williams was the only double-figures scorer for LSU with 23 points. Trae Hannibal had 12 rebounds for the Tigers.

Castleton made two free throws and a Myreon Jones 3 broke a 36-all tie and Florida led for the remainder. Castleton's layup with 3:05 to go extended the Gators' lead to 60-49. Williams' three-point play reduced LSU's deficit to 61-54 with 2:02 left, but Castleton closed the door adding another layup and four foul shots in the final 1:25.

The game matched Florida coach Todd Golden against LSU’s Matt McMahon in their first seasons at their respective programs. They squared off last March in their NCAA Tournament game at Indianapolis, where Murray State (McMahon) defeated San Francisco (Golden) 92-87 in overtime. That was Golden’s last game with the Dons.

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