The No. 12 Florida Gators basketball team were defeated by the Vanderbilt Commodores (17-15, 10-8 SEC) 73-71 and fall to 24-7 (14-4 SEC).
In the first half, the Gators’ offense, led by KeVaughn Allen, was off to a hot start. Allen had 13 points in the first half and went 2-4 from beyond the arc. Vanderbilt didn’t let Florida run away with the game like it would have liked to, scratching back to be only down nine at half after a Devin Robinson turnaround jumper went in to end the half. Florida carried a 40-31 lead at half shooting just over 51 percent compared to the Commodores 40 percent.
It was an up and down second half for Florida as it jumped out to a big double digit lead at the under 12-minute timeout. The game seemed to be in Florida’s hands, but the Commodores stormed back and got it’s packed crowd involved. On the back of Luke Kornet and his 20 points, the Commodores were able to take the lead with three minutes left in the game. Vanderbilt led by two with 12 seconds left and Kasey Hills game-tying layup rimmed out and no good. This was the second victory for Vanderbilt over Florida this year and may sneak into the tournament because of it. The Gators were lead in scoring by Canyon Barry with 15 points.
Mike White and the Gators will now try to clamp down as it enters the most important part of the season: March. Florida starts SEC tournament play on Thursday as the No. 2 seed.