Wednesday, February 3, 2016
At the Buzzer : Florida 87, Arkansas 83 (Instant Analysis)
Chris Harry
/
Senior Writer
A quick breakdown of the Gators' return to Southeastern Conference play Tuesday night against the Razorbacks.
AT THE BUZZER
FLORIDA 87, ARKANSAS 83
WHAT HAPPENED: Senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while sophomore point guard Chris Chiozza went for a career-high 17 points and eight assists, as the Gators held off the rallying Razorbacks at the O'Connell Center. UF trailed early, but took the lead on five straight points from Chiozza at around eight minutes in and never fell behind again, thanks to -- hold your breath -- free throw shooting. Florida, which came in shooting a Southeastern Conference-worst 63.2 percent from the line, buried 30 of 36 from the line, including eight of 10 in the final 1:25 after the Hogs began raining late 3-pointers to close a 12-point game with 2:38 left to just two with 6.5 left. KeVaughn Allen, the Arkansas native, hit a pair with 5.6 seconds left to ice the game. Arkansas finished 10-for-21 from 3, led by Anthlon Bell's game-high 24 points.
WHAT IT MEANS: A second straight win and fifth in the last six games for the Gators, who pulled into a tie with South Carolina for second place in the SEC standings. Just as key, UF's players obviously listened to Coach Mike White's warning of a potential "trapdoor" game, coming off the big defeat of West Virginia, and showed a level of maturity in their approach against a league foe resting in the bottom half of the standings and the importance of protecting the home court.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: White no doubt will address why the 6-foot-11, 255-pound center John Egbunu (14 points, 4 rebounds) did not start the game against a team severely outmatched by Florida's size. Egbunu did not enter the game until the 5:45 mark of the first half, but he played 15 minutes in the second half, scoring 12 of his points after halftime. Four of those points came on back-to-back dunks -- off nice drive-and-dish feeds from Kasey Hill -- when Arkansas had closed to make it a four-point game.
STAGGERING STATISTIC: As if UF's performance from the free-throw line wasn't astounding enough, throw in the last game -- when the Gators went 24 of 31 in the win over WVU -- and Florida is now 80.5 percent over the previous 40 minutes. In two weeks, the Gators have gone from a 61.1-percent team from the line to 64.5.
UP NEXT: After three of the previous four games at home, Florida (15-7, 6-3) is back on the SEC road Saturday to face No. 20 Kentucky (16-6, 6-3), where the Wildcats will be in a foul mood after blowing a 21-point lead on the road Tuesday night in a crushing loss at Tennessee.
