GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At halftime of the Florida-South Carolina game on Saturday, word started to spread. One person after another inside the pressroom asked in a surprised tone: Tennessee beat Vanderbilt?
Yes, the Vols did, erasing a 17-point deficit to win their first SEC game of the season. Meanwhile, it wasn’t difficult to imagine this question being asked around Knoxville on Saturday night: South Carolina beat Florida?
Yes, the Gamecocks did, knocking off the Gators 72-69 to spoil an otherwise picture-perfect Saturday afternoon for a rambunctious crowd of 12,158 at the O’Connell Center.
The Gators, after winning at Tennessee for the first time in six years on Tuesday, had an opportunity to play their way back into the national polls with a victory over a South Carolina team coming off a 10-point loss at Alabama.
The Gamecocks didn’t want to hear it, withstanding a late 10-0 run by Florida that tied the game 59-59 on Alex Tyus’ offensive rebound off a missed free throw by Erving Walker with 3:10 left. The O-Dome nearly exploded when Tyus’ basket evened the score.
But in what is shaping up to be a wild-and-wacky SEC East, South Carolina’s Bruce Ellington calmly hit a jumper 15 seconds later as if he were in a gym all alone. And then, after a Walker three-pointer cut South Carolina’s lead to 63-62, Gamecocks forward Sam Muldrow hit a rare three-pointer.
Despite the Gators’ valiant comeback, Muldrow’s shot with 53 seconds proved too much to overcome.
Afterward, the Gators (13-4, 2-1 SEC) had the look of a team that knew it missed a golden opportunity to give itself some breathing room in the division and extend its season-high five-game winning streak. Instead of remaining the division’s only unbeaten team in SEC play, the Gators found themselves dropping back to the pack.
“It’s never fun losing,’’ senior forward Chandler Parsons said. “We were right in the middle of the hunt for the SEC. Now we have a setback. We’ve just got to understand that every game means something and that no one is going to lie down.’’
Gators coach Billy Donovan had an idea of what Saturday’s showdown with South Carolina would be like.
“I thought the game was going to need to be won by playing somewhat ugly,’’ Donovan said. “We were going to have to make some ugly plays.’’
For the most part, it was an ugly kind of game for the Gators, who hit just 8 of 30 shots in the first half. They warmed up in the second half to hit 18 of 28 from the floor, but the free-throw line remained an icy place for the Gators to visit.
Florida missed its final five free throws with the game on the line and clanked 10 free throws (12 of 22) for the game.
“That is disappointing because we do practice free-throw shooting a lot,’’ said senior Vernon Macklin.
“I wish I had a magic potion,’’ Donovan said. “I only have 20 hours a week [at practice]. I wish I had more.’’
Free-throw woes aside, here’s what we know after three SEC games: There will be more games like this for the Gators, and if they don’t hit their free throws, the end result could be the same.
In the first week of league play, South Carolina has beaten Vanderbilt and Florida, Georgia beat Kentucky, the Gators beat Tennessee and then Tennessee turns around and beats Vanderbilt.
This is shaping up to be a survival-of-the-fittest kind of season. While the loss was disappointing, Donovan didn’t sense a mental letdown like he did when the Gators lost at home to Jacksonville on Dec. 20 – two days after knocking off No. 6-ranked Kansas State.
He blamed Saturday’s defeat on some bad decisions in the first half offensively, a lack of rebounding and the failure to clamp down defensively in the early going, which allowed South Carolina to go up by 13 at one point and take a 10-point lead into halftime.
The Gators had to claw and climb the rest of the game.
“
Every SEC game is tough,’’ Macklin said. “I was telling the freshmen about that. You are getting banged up every night. Those guys know everything we run, and we know everything they run.’’
The Gators now must regroup and return to practice in preparation for Thursday’s game at Auburn, considered the SEC’s weakest team.
Then again, the Gators know Auburn’s reputation shouldn’t make a difference. Auburn knocked off Florida State last month, and FSU just knocked off No. 1-ranked Duke on Wednesday, and the Gators beat FSU in November.
That sequence is the way the SEC season is shaping up. The Gators learned that lesson on the wrong side of the scoreboard Saturday.
Now they will try to avoid a repeat.
“We had great crowd,’’ Parsons said. “It was packed, rowdy. It’s just a shame we couldn’t come out with a win.
“We expect this every game. We know we’re not going to blow anybody out. If we hit some shots, we may beat teams by a big margin, but we understand it’s going to be just like this.’’
