Florida Gators
Tennessee
Men?s Hoops Loses 76-72 Heartbreaker to Tennessee
Thursday, February 23, 2006 | Men's Basketball
In Southeastern Conference action on Wednesday night, the No. 9/10 Florida men's basketball team fell to Tennessee for the second time this season, 76-72, at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. The match-up pitted two ranked SEC teams against one another for the first time this season, as the Gators dropped to 22-5 overall and 8-5 in the SEC.
Sophomore forward Joakim Noah (New York, N.Y.) led four Gators in double figures, as he put up 20 points, as well as nine rebounds, to narrowly miss the double-double. Noah also set a new career-high as he made off with five steals, and added five blocks. Sophomore Corey Brewer (Portland, Tenn.) notched 17 points, and added four assists and four boards as well as one block and one steal each. Junior Chris Richard (Lakeland, Fla.) put up 14 points for the Orange and Blue, as well as six rebounds, while sophomore center Al Horford (Puerto Plata, Domincan Republic) rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points and grabbed five boards.
Junior guard Lee Humphrey (Maryville, Tenn.) pitched in five points and three rebounds, while sophomore guard Taurean Green (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) was limited to four points on the night.
In the first half, Tennessee put up a quick 4-0 lead, but the Gators came back in force, scoring the next seven points. A pair of short 4-0 UF runs followed, securing the Florida lead at 19-12. The two teams traded baskets for the next four and a half minutes, until UF ripped 10 unanswered points to take their lead to 36-23 with 3:47 to play. The Vols answered back, however, with an 8-0 scoring drive to whittle the Gator lead to a 40-36 advantage at the break. Free throws proved to be the difference in the first half, as Florida shot 7-of-9 from the charity stripe, compared to a 0-for-1 mark by the Volunteers. The Gators outscored UT 26-12 in the paint, and recorded only five turnovers, compared to the Vols' 12 first half giveaways.
To start the second half, Tennessee attacked, eating away at the Gator advantage a couple of points at a time. The Volunteers took their first lead since early in the first half on a jumper by Andre Patterson to put UT on top 49-47 at the 12:35 mark. For the next three minutes, points were hard to come by for either team, as both squads turned it up on the defensive end of the court. Tennessee broke the scoring drought, sinking eight unanswered points to lead 59-52 with 7:25 remaining.
The Orange and Blue went to work for the next five minutes to erase the deficit and pull within one at two different times, before a three from Brewer tied it up at 69-all with 2:05 to play. A three by the Vols' JuJuan Smith at the 1:30 mark put UT back on top, but Humphrey proved his clutch-shooting ability by sinking a trey of this own as the clock ticked 52 seconds. In a near replay of events from the two teams' previous match-up this season, Brewer turned the ball over with 18 seconds remaining and Dane Bradshaw took it to the hoop for an easy lay-up to put Tennessee on top by a pair. Florida charged down the court but a missed three by Brewer followed by two successful free throw attempts from Chris Lofton gave the Volunteers their 76-72 win.
Florida did manage to outscore Tennessee in the paint, 44-32, and took advantage of 19 UT turnovers and converted them to 19 points. The Volunteers won the shooting percentage battle, making 50.0 percent of their shots from the field, compared to UF with a 46.6 percent success rate. The Gators out-rebounded the Vols, 36-31, but only shot 23.1 percent from behind the arc while Tennessee shot 52.4 percent. Lofton paced UT with 16 points, while Bradshaw notched 15.
Next up, the Gators will travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to face Alabama in a 4 p.m. contest to air on CBS Sunday at the Coleman Coliseum.
-UF-
