For about 29 minutes, it looked like the Gators might pull off a surprising victory over No. 18 Tennessee in Knoxville on Wednesday night.
They used 52 percent shooting, including 44 percent from beyond the arc, plus 11 Tennessee turnovers to take a 42-34 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Gators were making a bunch of tough shots and making life miserable for one of the more talented backcourts in the SEC at the other end.
However, they lost starting center Jason Jitoboh for the remainder of the night (and perhaps longer) when he was inadvertently slapped across the face by a Tennessee player while going up for a rebound late in the period.
Without him and normal starting center Colin Castleton (left shoulder) available and reserve forward CJ Felder (illness) limited to just three minutes due to illness, the Gators were forced to play most of the game with only two forwards, which meant extensive minutes with four guards on the floor.
Then, after turning the ball over just four times in the first half, they coughed it up five times in the first nine minutes of the second half. During that same stretch, the Volunteers made seven of 13 shots and turned it over only once.
Still, despite the turnovers and depth issues, the Gators clung to a 55-54 lead with less than 11 minutes to go.
While they fought valiantly until the very end, it wasn’t enough. Tennessee outscored them 24-16 the rest of the way to hand the Gators a 78-71 loss.
“I think we fought very hard,” UF forward Anthony Duruji said. “We stayed together. We’re continually trying to grow and put a whole game together, and I think we fought together, and we had each other’s backs. Obviously, there are some things that you can’t control. We tried to control what we could control today, and it’s just an unfortunate ending.
“We don’t want to make any excuses for ourselves. We have to continue to try to fight through adversity because we knew there was going to be adversity. There’s going to be adversity every game; it’s all about how we respond. I think that we took a step. Obviously, we didn’t come out with the win, but we have to continue to get better and look at the good side of it.”
With UF (12-8, 3-5 SEC) holding that one-point lead midway through the second half, Tennessee embarked on a 7-0 run to seize control of the game.
The spurt began when Justin Powell stole the ball away from Duruji and found Santiago Vescovi down the court for a go-ahead layup.
The Volunteers (14-5, 5-3) benefited from some questionable (at best) officiating on the Gators’ next possession. Brandon McKissic faked a three-point shot. The Tennessee player fell for it, leapt high into the air and came down on McKissic’s shoulder as he released a shot.
To 99.9 percent of the people watching the game, it seemed like an obvious foul call and three free throws for the Gators.
The referees didn’t see it that way, though, and play continued with Tennessee gaining possession and everyone in orange and blue erupting with indignation.
After a couple of offensive rebounds at the other end, Josiah-Jordan James buried a three.
If that sequence had been officiated the way it probably should have been, the Gators might’ve led by two points. Instead, they were down by four. That six-point swing proved important down the stretch.
John Fulkerson made a shot on Tennessee’s next possession to extend his team’s lead to 61-55 with 8:31 to go.
To the Gators’ credit, they didn’t let this game steamroll away from them at that point. They scratched and clawed until the very end and got the lead down to just three points on two occasions.
And then another controversial call by the officials went against the Gators with a little more than a minute remaining.
Trailing 71-66, it appeared that the Gators would shoot free throws after the Volunteers were called for a loose-ball foul while battling for a rebound. However, the officials reviewed the play and determined that Duruji was guilty of committing a hook-and-hold flagrant foul.
Instead of UF shooting free throws to try to make it a one-possession game, Vescovi sank a pair of free throws to extend the lead, and the Volunteers were awarded possession.
“I was surprised about a couple calls,” Duruji said.
“That’s like a big game-changer. That’s very draining, I would say. But, again, you’re on the road, you’re going to deal with adversity. We can’t control that, but I think we fought hard tonight.”
The Gators cut the lead down to 74-71 with 31 seconds remaining when Tyree Appleby made a contested three from the left corner, but Tennessee made its free throws and held on for the win.
Coach Mike White was pleased with the effort and intensity that his guys showed at both ends of the floor given how shorthanded they were, but there are obviously no moral victories in the SEC.
“That’s about as hard as we’ve played, which is what it took just to be competitive here,” he said. “Our guys played with more back against the wall, but it’s easier to do that after a loss. It just is. We’ll come out and play really, really hard on Saturday against a good Oklahoma State team at home.
“Who knows who will be available and who won’t, but the guys that we throw out there will take advantage of the opportunities and play with gratitude and play with some edge. And, hopefully, we continue to grow with some offensive confidence. And then, we’ve got to try to hold it together defensively with some moving roster parts here.”
Vescovi led the Volunteers with 23 points (on 5-for-8 shooting from distance), four assists and three rebounds. His backcourt mate, highly touted freshman Kennedy Chandler, chipped in 17 points and five assists.
Florida was fueled by Appleby’s solid all-around game of 16 points (4-for-8 from three), seven assists and two steals, but he also turned it over five times, four of which came in the second half.
Duruji matched him with 16 points and added six rebounds. However, he led the team with six turnovers (five after intermission) and fouled out in the final minute.
Phlandrous Fleming contributed 11 points, four rebounds and three assists, while Myreon Jones had 10 points, three rebounds, two assists and three steals.
Rebounding and three-point defense ended up being the two statistical categories that killed the Gators the most. They were outrebounded by 10, which wasn’t awful considering the lack of frontcourt depth but still hurt nonetheless. They had been one of the best teams in the SEC at defending the three, but the Volunteers sank 11 of 24 attempts (45.8 percent).
“I thought we did a good job on the interior, and we were just a step late on five or six of those threes,” White said. “Vescovi was terrific going 5-of-8, and Zakai [Zeigler] goes 3-of-5. We gave up 11 threes. If you give up seven or eight, maybe you come in here and steal this one.”
Not having Jitoboh on the court in the second half limited what the Gators could do at both ends. Offensively, they couldn’t make Tennessee pay for switching on screens. Jitoboh excels at slipping into the paint and scoring when defenses switch. Without the threat of that happening, the Gators became very reliant on perimeter shooting.
Defensively, Jitoboh’s absence meant that the Gators didn’t have anybody to match up against the Volunteers’ physical frontcourt players or a big body to secure rebounds.
“It changed our whole approach,” White said. “Defensively, we were just trying different things. We were just kind of throwing some stuff out there. Then, [Duruji], he’s getting fouls, and [Tuonthach Gatkek] is a guy, he just gets out there and gives it his all.
“And then, offensively, we’re running some stuff against one of the best defenses in the country. Jason’s our best screener, and they get in the second half where they’re switching everything, and we can’t take advantage of those switches on the interior. Just not much of an interior threat there in the second 20.”
A lot of things went against the Gators on Wednesday night, from Jitoboh’s injury to Felder’s illness to a couple of head-scratching calls by the referees to some tough shots that went in for the Volunteers.
However, that doesn’t make the loss any more palatable. The Gators have lost two games in a row, are two games below .500 in the league and will have plenty of work to do just to make the NCAA Tournament.
This loss stung.
“We’ve got other guys here on scholarship, and they had opportunities, and we just didn’t quite get it done,” White said. “We hope Jason can come back soon. We wish the best for him and Colin, obviously, but, in the meantime, the message to these guys all the time is ‘No one is going to feel sorry for you. No one feels sorry for us. No one’s going to feel sorry for you in life.’”