Kentucky Makes While UF Misses in O'Dome Sendoff

Tuesday, March 1

Gainesville, FL

7:00 PM

Florida Gators

17-13, 8-9SEC

Kentucky

22-8, 12-5SEC

Kentucky

Florida

Senior Dorian Finney-Smith leaves the O'Connell Center floor for the last time in the final minutes of UF's 88-79 loss to Kentucky.

Kentucky Makes While UF Misses in O'Dome Sendoff

Tuesday, March 1, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

Box Score Photo Gallery by Tim Casey, Madison Schultz, Andrés Leiva, and Kelly Streeter

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The popular postgame topic focused on Florida's free-throw shooting. Rightfully so. In falling Tuesday night to No. 22 Kentucky 88-79, the Gators made a blindfold-like 16 of 37 from the line.

"Obviously, we struggled," UF coach Mike White said. "It was a huge factor in the game."

But making just 43.2 percent of their free throws was only a small piece in dropping a fourth straight game and fifth in the last sixth. While UF made a respectable 42.6 percent from the floor and a typical 27.8 from the 3-point line, the Wildcats had their way when it came to putting the ball in the basket.

* Field goal percentage: 52.7.
* 3-point percentage: 70.0, including 100 percent in the second half (5-for-5).
* Free-throw percentage: 71.9.

How many teams are going to win surrendering those defensive numbers? It's not often that a team can shoot nearly double from the 3-point line what an opponent shoots from the free-throw line. But that's kind of the way this Florida basketball season is heading.

As in south.

UK guard Jamal Murray scored 18 of his 21 points in the second half, while point guard Tyler Ulis riddled the UF defense for 19 points, four rebounds and 11 assists. Those were just two of the five Wildcats who scored in double-figures on the way to claiming no worse than a share of a 41st Southeastern Conference title with one game remaining.

"We're still not where we need to be, but we had a lot of help from a lot of guys," Kentucky coach John Calipari said.

Maybe so, but his Wildcats (21-8, 12-5) are in a much better place than the Gators (17-13, 8-9), who have now lost five of six (plus six of eight) and have almost certainly been pushed from any NCAA Tournament bracket projections.

"We can try to stay positive, but this is the hand we were dealt," said UF senior Dorian Finney-Smith, who scored 15 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished five assists in his final home game. "We've got to do something about it."

Sophomore center John Egbunu flushes one of his nine dunks on the way to a career-high 27 points against Kentucky.

Time is wasting.

Make that three straight games that Florida, just a month ago one of the top-rated teams in the nation in defensive efficiency, has given up at least 87 points, allowed better than 52-percent shooting from the floor, plus at least 44 percent from the 3-point line. Those are numbers an offensively challenged bunch like the Gators aren't going to match, though sophomore center John Egbunu had an excellent night in scoring a career-high 27 points on 12-for-15 shooting from the floor, throwing down nine dunks. He also went three of 11 from the free-throw line.

"We had our opportunities," Egbunu said.

After falling behind by 14 in the first half, UF went on an 11-0 run late in the first half to close the gap to two and trailed 36-32 at halftime.

The lead was two again early in the second and just three at the 16-minute mark when the Murray hit a jumper, center Skal Labissiere (11 points, 8 rebounds) knocked another down, then Ulis rained in a 3 after an offensive rebound. Those were seven quick points that put UK up by 10. After an Egbunu, backup guard Dominique Hawkins hit another 3 to push the lead to 11.

Kentucky built the lead to 17 and never trailed by fewer than seven the rest of the way. Murray, who ripped the Gators for a career-high 35 points and eight 3-pointers in an 80-61 wipeout win at Lexington nearly a month ago, was held to just three points in the first half. In the second, he made all five of his field-goals attempts, including four 3s, and went 7-for-10 from the line.

"He's a big-time player and a big-time shooter," said UF sophomore forward Devin Robinson, who had 11 points and four rebounds in defeat. "He hurt us."

The sting will stick around for a few days, as the Gators wrap the regular season Saturday at Missouri, where they'll try to break the losing skid and remember what it feels like to walk off the floor smiling.

"It sounds odd, but I feel for our guys," White said. "We knew we had to come out and just lay it on the line. I can't fault their effort. There have been some games this season where I wasn't real pleased with it, but I thought we played really hard. We just didn't play well enough. Kentucky was just better."

Right now, the Gators are saying that about everybody.