Gators point guard Chris Chiozza scores on LSU giant Ben Simmons in Saturday's 68-62 victory.
Energized Gators Bounce Back, Hold Off Simmons, LSU 68-62
Saturday, January 9, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Before getting to the really important digits, let the record show the Florida Gators went 17-for-30 from the free-throw and bricked their way to 3-for-18 from the 3-point line.
Those numbers were dismal.
These were not: Florida 68, LSU 62.
UF coach Mike White now has a signature victory in his first season, but he also has the ultimate reference point to stick in the Gators' faces the way they stuck to the Tigers in Saturday's feel-good victory before a booming, Ben Simmons-taunting, season-high crowd of 11,130 at the O'Connell Center.
The performance was the antithesis of the flat-line effort Florida rolled out Wednesday night on the way to getting drilled at Tennessee in a game the Gators trailed by 30. Less than 72 hours later, UF was the tone-setter from the opening tip and because it was the aggressor was able to overcome the customary clanging from the free-throw and 3-point lines.
"We just played really, really hard," White said. "As we continue to go 17-30 and 3-18, we can control how hard we play. I'm very pleased with that, very pleased with the effort it took. It was going to take that type of effort to have a chance."
It was an all-out, 11-man blitzkreig that was able to minimize -- if you want to call it that -- a monster night from Simmons, the top-rated player in the country and No. 1 overall NBA draft choice in waiting. LSU's 6-foot-10 power forward finished with 28 points, 17 rebounds and four assists -- scoring his team's final 12 to almost single-handedly rally the Tigers to a comeback -- but also was harassed into eight second-half turnovers by a UF defense that allowed just 35.7-percent shooting and 3-for-20 from deep.
The 6-11, 255-pound Egbunu started the game just 1-for-6 from the foul line, but went 4-for-4 down the stretch, plus dropped in a hook shot with 49 seconds left after Simmons converted an old-fashioned 3-point play that drew the Tigers to 63-62.
After Egbunu's hook pushed the margin to three, Simmons traveled LSU's end and an intentional foul of Egbunu off the ball on UF's possession netted two more made free throws by the Gators big man with 21 seconds to go for a five-point lead that virtually iced it.
"My coaches and teammates told me to keep shooting them and believe in myself," Egubunu said.
They also told him to bend his knees, which apparently worked. Whatever else the UF coaches advised on free throws late in the game were on point. After starting a ridiculous 8-for-20, the Gators went 9-for-10 over the final 5:56.
"Guys stepped up with confidence and made them," senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. "You just have to trust in each other that we would make them."
Speaking of trust, the Gators -- after the debacle in Knoxville -- needed to believe they would put a product on the floor that reflected what White and his staff are trying to build since taking over for icon Billy Donovan. On a team that struggles so much offensively (UF ranks last in the league in field goal, 3-point free throw percentage), nothing short of pure unadulterated basketball passion is going to work for this bunch.
The Tennessee game was proof.
As was LSU.
"We had something to prove to ourselves, to each other," Finney-Smith said. "We got away for it in the Tennessee game. We got away from it when adversity hit. But [today], we tried to stay together and play for each other."
It was evident immediately. Finney-Smith (14 points) scored nine points inside the game's first four minutes, as UF took an early lead. The Gators kept it with junior forward Justin Leon battling on the boards, grabbing six in the first six minutes on his way to career highs of 14 points and nine rebounds.
LSU, just four days removed from an 18-point pounding of Kentucky, never led. The Gators at one point in the first half were up 10, but the Tigers came back. UF took the lead out again, slowly, in the second half. The lead was nine with 4:34 remaining before Simmons (7-for-15 from the floor, 14 of 16 from the free-throw line) started mounting his team's rally.
He scored a dozen in the final 4-plus minutes, but also had three turnovers -- two in the last minute -- before fouling out with 14 seconds left.
"I know I made a lot of plays where things didn't turn out too well," Simmons said. "I had a lot of turnovers and a lot of plays down the stretch were sort of my fault."
But the Tigers were in the game. That was his "fault," too.
'I'm amazed by Ben Simmons," White said. "I felt we did a pretty good job on him -- and he gets 28 and 17, with four assists. What a talent he is. Wow."
And what a time for the Gators to answer the energy bell.
"If we came out like we did at Tennessee, we might've lost by 40," sophomore guard Chris Chiozza said after scoring seven points on just 2-for-10 shooting, but also dishing a season-high eight assists in 32 minutes. "We weren't going to allow that to happen. Not at home. We weren't going to let them come in here and treat us like little kids. We had to be men about it."
In being men, they beat The Man.
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