'Bama Defense Smothers Finney-Smith, Gators

Saturday, February 13

Gainesville, FL

5:30 PM

Florida Gators

Alabama

Mike White tries to encourage his team during Saturday's tough home loss against Alabama.

'Bama Defense Smothers Finney-Smith, Gators

Saturday, February 13, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

Box Score

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Mike White was about five minutes into his post-game postmortem when in scanning the stat sheet he came across something that made his eyes get wide.

Not in a good way.

"Offensive rebounds, putbacks, for whatever reason, we couldn't finish at the rim," the Florida coach said after Saturday's stinging 61-55 loss to Alabama before 12,045 at the O'Connell Center. "Twenty-three offensive rebounds -- Wow! -- and we score 55 points. I'm not sure I've ever seen a box score like that before."

A closer look revealed a lot worse.

In losing at home to the Crimson Tide for the first time in 12 games -- and the first time at home since 1995 -- the Gators shot 28.6 percent from the floor, made just three of 21 shots from the 3-point line (14.3 percent) and bricked their way to just 16 of 27 from the free-throw line (59.3 percent).

All told, the numbers crunched to a horribly ill-timed defeat for Florida (16-9, 7-5), whichis trying to collect wins to bolster its NCAA Tournament profile. Not only did the Gators fail to protect their home floor, they allowed the Crimson Tide (15-9, 6-6), winners of five of the previous six and another Southeastern Conference team fighting for postseason relevance, to come in the house and steal a victory UF desperately needed before going on a tough two-game league road swing this week.

Bama senior guard Retin Obasohan, the conference's No. 5 scorer, topped the Tide with 15 points, but fouled out with over five minutes to go in a tight game. Didn't matter. That's because the Gators couldn't score against a defense that put on "X" on Florida forward Dorian Finney-Smith (12 points, 9 rebounds), allowing him just eight field-goal attempts, and daring his teammates to make 3s (they couldn't) or challenge Alabama's 6-foot-10 rim protector Jimmie Taylor (5 blocks, many more altered attempts).

"We just couldn't make shots," Finney-Smith said. "They denied me the whole game and we just kept missing shots. They didn't let me touch the ball hardly at all."

"Finney-Smith is a guy who can definitely beat you," Tide coach Avery Johnson said. "Trying to neutralize him, slowing him down, we tried to use three or four different defenders on him, give him different looks."

That meant someone else had to step up. Instead, center John Egbunu went 2-for-9 from the floor, forward Devin Robinson 0-for-5, point guard Chris Chiozza 3-for-12 and forward Justin Leon 4-for-11. The Gators were 1-for-12 in the second half from the 3-point line and 9-for-18 on their free throws.

Freshman guard KeVaughn Allen had 12 points and Leon 10 points and five rebounds. Robinson had 12 rebounds, but only two points. Egbunu had 10 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season, but had a tough time getting free and making baskets in the paint and went 6-for-14 from the line. He also had three turnovers.

UF's 55 points was its fewest in SEC play this season.

"Again, we just couldn't make shots," White said.

Bama, meanwhile, shot 60 percent after halftime, more than double Florida's 27.3 for the last 20 minutes.

UF actually led by seven after an Egbunu dunk with five seconds left in the half, but that margin -- Florida's biggest of the day -- was short-lived as backup guard Justin Coleman (10 points) chucked in a 3-pointer from 30 feet at the buzzer.

Might as well have been an omen.

Florida led 41-40 after Kasey Hill's driving lefty layup with 9:15 to go, but the Tide scored the next seven points, getting an old-fashion 3-point play from Obasohan, vicious slam by Taylor in the face of Egbunu and jumper from the elbow from Obasohan. They never trailed again.

Alabama's lead was 48-44 when Obasohan was whistled for his fifth foul on a charge with 5:43 to play and guard Arthur Edwards, one of its better perimeter defenders, fouled out 13 seconds later.

UF never got closer than five.

A win would have left the Gators in a tie for second place with South Carolina and just a game out of first place in the SEC standings, with dates against both front-running Kentucky and LSU ahead. Instead, Florida fell into a cluster of middle-of-the-pack league teams -- like Texas A&M, Georgia, Vanderbilt and now Alabama -- fighting to make their case.

"We're in the conversation," Johnson said with a smile.

So are the Gators, but their margin for error just got a lot smaller. The Florida coach was not smiling.

"This was tough loss for us," said White, whose team heads to Georgia Tuesday and South Carolina next weekend. "I told our guys the next two will be a lot harder than this one was."