Vanderbilt exploits Gators on inside

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NASHVILLE, TN — It came down to depth or lack of it and a lack of defense, which had everything to do with the lack of depth in the frontcourt. When the Florida Gators saw their front line decimated by foul troubles, it opened the door for Vanderbilt to pound away on the inside and that was all the Commodores needed to take a 95-87 win in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.

The Gators (11-4, 0-1 SEC) will have only two days to regroup because unbeaten Kentucky comes to town Tuesday night. Vanderbilt (12-3, 1-0) travels to Alabama Wednesday.

Vanderbilt seemingly got every whistle when the ball went inside in the first half. Chandler Parsons went to the bench with two fouls early. Vernon Macklin picked up two first half fouls and Erik Murphy was hit for three coming off the bench. Florida’s foul troubles gave Vanderbilt carte blanche to score on the inside. Led by A.J. Ogilvy (24 points), Jeffery Taylor (14) and Andre Walker (eight points, 11 rebounds), Vanderbilt totally dominated on the inside.

Once the second half began, Vanderbilt’s strategy was to go straight at the Gators on the inside. Ogilvy scored Vanderbilt’s first eight points of the second half but more importantly, he drew two quick fouls, one on Macklin with 18:22 left and another on Murphy, who picked up his fourth foul with 17:26 left in the game. Macklin picked up his fourth foul with 12:47 left and he fouled out with 6:49. Murphy replaced Macklin but he fouled out 22 seconds later.

For all their difficulties shutting down Vandy on the inside, the Gators were able to hang with the Commodores until Vanderbilt went on a 13-4 run to turn a 55-54 deficit into a 67-58 lead on a driving layup by Jermaine Beal.

Kenny Boynton, who finished the game with a career-best 28 points, and Erving Walker (22 points) were able to keep the Gators in the game but Florida had no answers for Vanderbilt on the inside.

Vandy got a dunk from Taylor with 3:27 remaining to stretch its lead to 83-73 but the Gators wouldn’t go away. Florida hit four three-pointers in the final three minutes of the game, closing to within six (93-87) with 32 seconds remaining in the game but when Beal hit two foul shots with 25 seconds left it sealed Florida’s fate.

Vanderbilt finished the game hitting 52.5 percent from the field (31-59). The Commodores had a streak of five straight three-balls in the first half, but otherwise the Gators defended the three-point line well. Vanderbilt finished the game hitting only 7-21 after a 5-8 start.

Florida turned in one of its best shooting games of the year. The Gators hit 29-56 from the field and a sizzling 13-27 (48.1 percent) from the three-point line. The Gators were coming off a 3-24 game from behind the arc against North Carolina State last Sunday.

The Gators came out firing away with confidence. When Boynton’s first two three-points went down — he came into the game shooting 25.5 percent from beyond the arc — it was a sign that the Gators were going to have a very good shooting afternoon. Boynton hit 4-6 on three-pointers in the first half while Walker went 3-5 as the Gators hit 57.1 percent on the three-ball in taking a 44-42 lead into the locker room.

Shooting wasn’t Florida’s big problem in the first half but fouls were. The Gators were whistled for 10 personals, all of them on Florida’s front line. That allowed Vandy to go to the line 14 times (made nine) and that, more than anything else, kept the Commodores close. Florida, on the other hand, got to the line for only four free throws (made all four) in the first half.

The Gators gave up a flurry of threes by the Commodores early in the game but tightened up the defense in the final 10 minutes.  After a string of five straight threes, the Commodores missed their final seven and finished the half hitting 5-16 (31.3 percent).

Florida led by as many as seven points in the first half but the Gators never could put together a run to get the lead into double figures. Florida jumped to a 9-2 lead to begin the game but Vanderbilt got hot from the three-point line, hit five in a row and bolted out to its biggest lead of the half (19-14) with a 17-5 run.

Vanderbilt rallied back from a seven-point deficit (31-24) with a run of nine straight points, taking a 33-31 lead on a pair of free throws by Jermaine Beal with 5:44 remaining in the half. The Gators hit three threes — two by Boynton and one by Erving Walker — to regain control of the game at 42-37 with 2:12 left in the half.

Again, Vanderbilt rallied to tie the game on a three-point play by A.J. Ogilivy with 11.6 seconds to go but Alex Tyus got a dunk off a great pass by Walker at the buzzer to give the Gators the lead at 44-42 going into the break.

The Gators finished with four players in double figures. In addition to Boynton (28) and Walker (22), Alex Tyus scored 12 points and Dan Werner chipped in with 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Chandler Parsons scored eight points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds off the bench. Rebounding was a huge problem for the Gators. Although the final numbers showed the Gators matched Vandy with 29 rebounds, the Gators got only one rebound from Tyus and two from Macklin, their starting big men.

In addition to pounding the ball at will on the inside, the Commodores outscored the Gators by 10 points at the foul line. Florida finished 16-21 but Vanderbilt was 26-33.