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Published Feb 26, 2020
Lewis and Johnson's career nights lead Gators to win
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Jacquie Franciulli  •  1standTenFlorida
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@JacquieFran_

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Mike White knew Keyontae Johnson still had another gear.

"I’m not sure he knows how good he can be," White said on Tuesday prior to Florida's game against LSU.

Well the nation is certainly seeing how good he can be.

Johnson has had quite the February and the sophomore helped the Gators move one step closer to a NCAA Tournament bid on Wednesday night.

The sophomore was electric in Florida's (18-10, 10-5 ) 81-66 win over LSU. Johnson netted a career-high 25 points and grabbed 11 boards in the victory.

"We've never been able to guard Johnson," LSU coach Will Wade said after Johnson had his way with the Tigers. "That's two straight years we haven't been able to guard him. When he sees the purple he just lights up."

In the month of February, Johnson has averaged 17.5 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.4 steals in a span of eight games.

"It's just gaining more confidence as games go by, trying to carry it over each game to do what I've got to do to get the team win," Johnson said. "Just playing at my pace, just playing with confidence and shooting with confidence, just playing the game like coach says and letting the moment come to you."

Florida has now won six of its last eight games and has very likely secured a bid to the NCAA Tournament after Wednesday's win.

“Coach White said it a couple times throughout the year, but today he made it clear- he knows that if we play at the level we know we can play at and our staff knows we can play at, we can beat anyone in college basketball," said Scottie Lewis. "We made that clear today and that definitely gave us a lot of confidence today.”

Johnson is not the only player that has stood out. Lewis also had a career-high 18 points, shooting 2-for-3 from three-point range.

“It’s a roller coaster with the freshmen," said White. "Despite the roller coaster, it’s been a gradual climb. I think the trajectory continues to improve. Defensively, he’s gotten a little more solid. He’s gotten to where his focus on scattering the court on defense has improved. Offensively, he’s found his niche a little bit. He’s become a better cutter; he’s working on his shooting a lot. His shot selection, more than anything, has improved, as well as his assist/turnover ratio as of late. The game is slowing for him a little bit, as it has for Keyontae (Johnson) and all these other guys as they progress. Tonight, Scottie made the best decisions he’s made all year. Just simple plays.”

"I think he’s been listening to coaches a lot, where can find his best shots and where he can find his grove," added guard Andrew Nembhard. "When to take a shot, when to not take a shot, and I think he’s been thriving.”

Meanwhile, Nembhard added 17 points in the win over LSU himself.

Florida moved the ball well, only turning over the ball five times, which is a season low, while managing to force LSU to turn over the ball eight times and scoring 14 points off of those turnovers.

The Gators also managed to secure 48 points in the paint compared to the Tigers' 38 points.

"I just think that we were just so locked in and focused. I think we’re just taking a business approach to everything," said Lewis. "It’s fun, in a sense, to win basketball games … but Coach (White) said in practice the other day that it’s enough with experimenting, we have all these wins and losses under our belts … just focus on winning, taking a super serious approach to everything.”

"We are getting closer to where we want to play," said White.

White's men will now hit the road to Knoxville, Tenn.

Florida and the Vols will tip off on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.