Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Were it not for Jalen Hudson, the conversations after Sunday night's Florida-New Hampshire basketball likely would not have been too pleasant for the Gators.

"Very good chance, yeah," senior point guard Chris Chiozza nodded. "Probably 75 percent. Maybe 90 percent."

Maybe 100.

UF needed someone — anyone — to come to the rescue of an offense that was firing blanks after sending mega-volts through the Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center scoreboard in their first two games. Not this time. Nope, the visiting Wildcats not only hung around, but threw a major mid-major scare into the Gators before Hudson, the junior wing and transfer from Virginia Tech, got hot to the tune of 26 points and led his team to a 70-63 victory that allowed 9,501 at the O'Dome to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Hudson scored 22 of his points after intermission, including 19 of his team's final 24. Even with the 6-foot-6 swingman going 7-for-12 from the floor, 11-for-12 from the free-throw line, plus seven rebounds, the Gators (3-0), who trailed by one midway into the second half, had a fight to the finish on their hands because only guy was making shots on a team that seemingly couldn't miss in scoring 100-plus points in its first two outings.

Consider this a wake-up call.

"I think it's probably good for our guys," UF coach Mike White said of being humbled in a down-to-the-wire win (which is always better than a down-to-the-wire loss) against an opponent from the America East Conference. "Maybe we were a little overly comfortable and feeling ourselves a little."

Because Hudson turned hero, UF was able to overcome an horrific night shooting of just 32.1 percent, including 3-for-18 from the 3-point line (16.7) after combining to make 26 of 54 (48.1 percent) against Gardner-Webb and North Florida to open the season.

"I just tried to stay aggressive," Hudson said. "I didn't want to get passive at all during the game. Things started to come to me and my teammates started to look to me a little more. I thought we closed it out well."

But first, there was drama.

Make that angst.
 
If it wasn't forward Tanner Leissner (23 points, 5 rebounds) working inside-out it was one of the Wildcats guards, either Elijah Jordan or backup John Ogwuche, hitting 3s — the two combined to go 7-for-9 from deep — to keep the Wildcats around. The Gators defense was bad (UNH shot 36.1 percent), but the Wildcats were making timely shots, and Florida wasn't making many of any.

The score was locked 32-all at halftime and the Wildcats actually took a short-lived 49-48 lead with 9:21 to go, but Hudson quickly erased it with a slam-dunk seven seconds later. His flush kicked in a run of nine straight for Hudson and put him on his down-the-stretch tear.

"We needed that," graduate-transfer forward Egor Koulechov said. "We needed someone to give us a spark."

It was a one-possession game twice inside three minutes, as New Hampshire (1-2) just would not go away. The score was 64-61 when Hudson was fouled on a drive. His two free throws pushed the lead back to three, but Leissner posted and put in a bank shot with two minutes left that made it 66-63.

Once again, it was Hudson driving and kissing one off the glass for a five-point edge at the 1:38 mark. At UNH's end, forward Iba Camara missed, UF rebounded, moved into the front court and sophomore forward Keith Stone was fouled with 46 seconds to go.

Stone made both free throws, his only points of the game, for a seven-point cushion and the home team finished from there.
 
Koulechov had 14 points and 10 rebounds, while senior point guard Chris Chiozza added 12 points and six rebounds. The fact Chiozza had zero assists for the first time in 63 games — and just the third time in his Southeastern Conference-high 108 career games — goes directly to his team's shooting struggles. Thank goodness for those 31 of 38 free throw (81.6 percent).

And just six days after Gardner-Webb coach Tim Craft said the Gators were the the fastest team he'd seen in his 17 seasons as far as getting out in transition, UF finished with two fast-break points.

"They knew what we wanted to run," Chiozza said. "I don't know how many guys they sent to the offensive glass, but once we got the ball they all sprinted and made sure we didn't get those transition 3s we got the first two games. I felt we still did a good job pushing the ball, but they did a good job of getting back and matching up."

New Hampshire may have provided some future opponents a blueprint on how to play Florida, though a shooting night like this one for a team with so many scorers figures -- junior guard KeVaughn Allen was 2-for-10 with five points -- to be something of an anomoly. At least the Gators hope so. At the very least, the Wildcats definitely provided a reality check, especially as the Gators look to this week's trip to Portland, Ore., and their spot in the loaded, 16-team Nike-sponsored PK80 tournament Thanksgiving weekend.

"It's kind of like a smack in the face," Hudson said. "We're not as good as we think we are, or [worth] being No. 8 in the country. We're nowhere near where we should be. I'm glad we had it now, because we're going to go out to Portland and there's going to be some [better] competition out there."