If LSU women's basketball isn't careful, it could lose out on the opportunity to be one of the top four teams in the Southeastern Conference come conference tournament time, which would mean it would miss out on the illustrious double bye.

The No. 9-ranked Tigers (18-4, 5-3 SEC) have dropped back-to-back games and are currently tied for fourth in the SEC standings with Mississippi State, who owns the tiebreaker over Kim Mulkey's team after beating them, 77-73, in Starkville on Monday night.

There are still eight league games remaining in the regular season for LSU so nothing has been established yet but the team's recent trend has been puzzling and alarming in ways. The Tigers look to start righting the ship against Florida (11-8, 2-5) inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m., SEC Network).

LSU women's basketball late-game defense must improve

While Mulkey has insinuated that she may have to tamper down her expectations of her team's defense this season, that still doesn't mean she's not going to expect improvements from what she saw late in the game against South Carolina and at Mississippi State.

The Bulldogs scored 28 points on LSU in the third quarter and outscored the Tigers 42 to 33 in the second half. South Carolina put up 24 fourth-quarter points on LSU to pull away late.

To comfortably get back into the top four in the conference, LSU must better their late-game defense and it needs to start against the Gators.

Kim Mulkey should give reserves more minutes

From a matchup perspective, LSU holds the edge over Florida at just about every position on the court.

Florida allows 75 points per game and going up against a susceptible defense like that, Mulkey could take advantage of the situation and give more minutes to her reserves Sunday. It would be a forward-thinking plan as it's not sustainable for LSU to maintain playing six players for more than seven minutes per game.

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The Tigers are going to need more reliable players come March and what better way than to give freshmen guards Angelica Velez and Janae Kent along with freshman center Aalyah Del Rosario more playing time now.

Florida scouting report

Florida can score.

Guards Aliyah Matharu and Leilani Correa rank second and third in the SEC in scoring at 18.3 and 17.9 points per game, respectively. Much of that has come since the Gators opened league play and the duo has been effective.

The trouble for Florida is that it doesn't have another scoring option. So in crunch time of games, teams have keyed in on Correa and Matharu and have been able to stop them.

LSU women's basketball score prediction vs. Florida

LSU 86, Florida 78: This game is going to be closer than most expect. Both teams can score but LSU's defense will get a couple of key stops early and late to outlast Florida.

Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers and Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU/UL athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU women's basketball vs. Florida: Score prediction, scouting report