BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Marie Ferdinand scored 21 points and April Brown added 19 as LSU (No. 9 ESPN/USA Today, No. 12 AP) stopped Florida 71-66 in a Southeastern Conference game Thursday night.

The victory was the 14th in 15 home games this season for LSU (21-5 overall, 10-3 SEC) and improved Lady Tigers to 56-4 at home since the 1996-97 season. It also earned LSU the No. 3 seed in next week's SEC tournament.

Tonya Washington got 18 of her 31 points on 3-point goals to lead Florida (15-11, 5-8).

LSU, which also got 12 points from Katrina Hibbert, seized a 34-24 halftime lead.