Duke hands Florida Gators second loss

For just the second time in this 2016-2017 season, the Florida Gators men’s basketball team was edged by a top 10 team nationally. First it was to the Gonzaga Bulldogs and on Tuesday night it was to the No. 5 Duke Blue Devils in Madison Square Garden. The Gators were scrappy and fluid early in the game, but in the end, the Blue Devils were just too deep and too talented on offense.

It wasn’t just the fact that Duke was making its shots, but they were also able to take a second to look at the basket before, winning on the boards 35-32, including a 25-19 advantage on the defensive glass. . Duke shot just 41.2 percent from behind the arc but star guard Luke Kennard made 5-7 of his and many were daggers or a shot to continue a backbreaking Duke run. Kennard wasn’t the only headliner of this impressive Duke team. Amile Jefferson shot an impressive 11-14 from the field and was able to score 24 points and grab 15 rebounds to go with Kennard’s 29 points and three assists. Kennard and Jefferson’s points came in the starting lineup, but possibly the most impressive performance came off the bench for the Blue Devlis. Freshman Jayson Tatum scored 22 points in just his second college game. The three Blue Devils combined for 75 points outscoring the Gators on their own. When the Gator defense would focus on Jefferson or Tatum too much, there would be a wide-open kick out three for the Blue Devils to Kennard, who was red hot all night. The aggressive defensive play is something that we’ve seen from the Gators for much of the season, but Mike White alluded to the problems with playing too aggressive against a team like Duke, “It seemed like we paid for everyone (aggressive play) with a Kennard shot or a Jayson Tatum shot.”

The Gators and Blue Devils traded jabs early in the contest, lead change after lead change. But the Gators finished the half turning the ball over 10. Those 10 turnovers and a 13-1 run by Duke at the end of the half culminated in a 10-point Duke lead, which ultimately spelled disaster for the Gators. The Gators were shaken by the Blue Devils run in the first half, and Mike White could see it in his guys faces and their play, ”I thought there was a few possessions in the first half where we got a little rattled and then you get lose with the ball because the wrong guy has got it on the wrong spot.” The Blue Devils talented scoring offense was just too much for the Gators in the second half.

In an attempt to erase the deficit and regain momentum, Florida was taking challenging shots and getting out of their game plan. For the Gators, a scorer has still yet to present themselves but it was one of their better nights from beyond the arc shooting over 50 percent.

Tuesday night’s loss to Duke will now be placed on the back burner as Florida has to travel to Tallahassee on Sunday and try to end the three game losing streak to in state rival Florida State, which is another big challenge for Mike White and another opportunity to get a big win on a national stage.