Florida Gators
Tennessee
Florida Falls at No. 14 Tennessee, 61-60
Sunday, January 31, 2010 | Men's Basketball
The Florida men's basketball team came up just short on Sunday afternoon in Knoxville, falling 61-60 to No. 14 Tennessee. Junior Alex Tyus (St. Louis, Mo.) led the Gators with 18 points and seven rebounds.
Tennessee's Scotty Hopson came out of a timeout and quickly hit a long jump shot with 21 seconds left to put the Volunteers up by one. Tyus had a chance to grab the lead back for Florida (15-6, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) but missed a jumper in the middle of a crowd under the basket with 5 seconds left.
After playing poorly in the first half, Wayne Chism led the Vols with 16 points and 11 rebounds and hit two key free throws with 42 seconds left. Hopson scored 10 points, and J.P. Prince had 12.
Junior Chandler Parsons (Casselberry, Fla.) scored 14 points, including a three-pointer with 30 seconds left in the game to put the Gators up 60-59. He also had eight rebounds.
Tennessee (16-4, 4-2 SEC) started off slow, but overcame Florida in the second half. The Vols were scrappier on defense and put a strong effort on the boards, outrebounding the Gators 27 to 12 after halftime.
Before the break, it was all Florida.
The Gators used a pressing defense reminiscent of one Tennessee has used against them in the past. They limited the Vols to 36.4 shooting and outrebounded them 20-14 before halftime while taking control of the paint on both ends.
Senior Dan Werner (Middletown, N.J.) hit a 3-point shot from the corner of the floor and the Gators hit two more in the paint to grab a 15-7 lead with 12:55 to go.
Florida led by 10 points in the first half thanks to 57.7 percent shooting, but the Gators cooled off considerably in the second half, hitting just 36.4 percent from the field.
Florida travels to Tuscaloosa on Thursday to face Alabama at 7:00 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
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