Florida Gators

PORTLAND, Ore. — Eight months ago, Chris Chiozza played in a basketball game the Florida senior point guard rates as the all-time favorite of his lifetime. You might recall it. Chiozza, his arms and chest in pain and packed in ice, thought about that game on the bus ride from Moda Center back to the team hotel early Friday morning.

He smiled.

"This one is now my second favorite," Chiozza said.

There will be thousands of college games across the country between now and next April, but they all will be hard-pressed to match the furious back-and-forth and high-level brand of basketball that played out between No. 7 UF and No. 17 Gonzaga in second-round action of the PK80 Invitational. Simply put, it was spectacular athletic theater, and ultimately one of the great victories in the history of the Florida program.

UF junior swingman Jalen Hudson scored a career-high 35 points, all but four coming after halftime, to lead the Gators past the reigning NCAA runner-up Bulldogs and their profound home court advantage in a 111-105 double-overtime classic before a mostly Zag-clad crowd of 14,274. Chiozza had a career-high 26 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists in 46 brutal minutes, with 14 of his points coming after regulation. Junior shooting guard KeVaughn Allen, who also logged 46 minutes, added 23 points, including 11 free throws in as many attempts, plus five assists.

In the end, it was a marathon battle of wills — with 17 lead changes, 11 ties and a 39-point outburst from Gonzaga forward Johnathan Williams, who hit an astonishing 16 of 22 shots  — but the team that came from 2,900 miles away was the one that persevered and outlasted the one from Spokane, Wash., five hours to the north.

"Such an emotional long game," a drained UF coach Mike White said in a post-game press conference that began at 2:51 a.m. EST. "I'm still young at this. I don't know where to start. Crazy game, and just really proud to have been a part of it."
 
He was definitely glad the guy sitting to his right, Hudson, was part of it. The 6-foot-6 transfer from Virginia Tech, went 11-for-20 from the floor and 8-for-12 from the 3-point line, including a pair of treys in the second overtime. Chiozza also had a 3-pointer in that period, as well as a conventional 3-point play, after suffering a bruises to the ribs that had him gasping for air on the UF bench in the game's frantic final moments.

But in a hostile environment and atmosphere that felt an awful lot like March (minus the "neutral-site" crowd), Chiozza soldiered through and willed the Gators to victory.

They all did.

"We just had to fight and keep fighting," Hudson said. "Coach White kept saying, 'It's just us! It's just us! That's it!' So we fought and never stopped."

In doing so, the Gators (5-0) secured themselves a spot in the championship game of the PK80 Motion bracket, a reward that will get them a late Sunday night showdown with No. 1-ranked Duke (7-0). First, though, UF will get Saturday off to rest and maybe process — and appreciate — what happened to get them there.

"Great, great basketball game. Just epic," said Gonzaga coach Mark Few, whose team lost to North Carolina in the 2017 NCAA title game. "We had our chances to win it and didn't get it done. They hit some big shots and got it done. It wasn't because of a lack of effort on our part or lack of execution on our part or anything like that. They just won."

And the Gators did it with leading scorer Egor Koulechov turning stone-cold. Koulechov, the transfer from Rice, came into the game averaging 21.8 points per game, shooting 49.2 percent overall and a staggering 56 percent from 3. The one known as "3gor," though, went just 1-for-9 and finished with four points.

"It just shows how tough we are and how deep we are," said Koulechov, who chipped in with nine rebounds, four assists and a couple steals. "I know I didn't shoot it well, but I could not be happier for this team right now. We beat a great team in a great game."
 
The Bulldogs led by four points with two minutes remaining in regulation, when the Gators flipped the scoreboard with a Hudson 3 and two free throws from Chiozza to go up 76-75 with 1:06 to go. Gonzaga, though, went back up by two when standout point guard Josh Perkins (17 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists) converted a 3-point play with 40.1 seconds left.

Allen answered for UF with a hard-driving, reverse lefty layup with 28 seconds to go to make it 78-all. That score stood to the final horn when a wide-open 3-point shot by Silas Melson (12 points, 5 assists) hit the back iron, as the Florida sideline collapsed in relief.

"They're a great team, with great coach, that's tough, disciplined and plays hard," Chiozza aid. "We knew we were going to have to battle the whole game."

Plus 10 minutes more.
 
The first five-minute overtime had five lead changes and ended with a fourth tie of the period. Along the way, Chiozza's 3-point play fouled out Perkins with 8.3 seconds left and the Gators ahead 95-93. But Melson then drove through the Florida defense, banked in a layup to tie the game and was fouled with 1.8 seconds left. Melson had a free throw, basically, to win the game, but bounced it.

Both teams scored 17 points in the period.

UF opened the second overtime with an 8-2 flurry, thanks to back-to-back 3-balls from Hudson and Chiozza. Zach Norvell Jr.'s driving layup made it a four-point game, but Hudson again drilled a 3 for a seven-point lead, and the Gators took it home from there at the free-throw line, where they went 28 of 35 for the game, including 22 of their final 24.

Florida had 16 points in that period. The Gators had 29 total in the first half, when they went to the locker room down seven. No one could have predicted the 30 minutes that would follow. 

"We had several opportunities to fold," White said. "But our guys were extremely resilient and tough, and I thought made some big strides in those departments."

Florida, for the second straight night, faced a difficult size disadvantage and it showed up as Gonzaga had a 52-24 scoring advantage in the paint, with the 6-9 Williams having his way on the block with whoever the Gators sent at him. UF, though, cancelled things out by shooting nearly 46 percent for the game and draining 17 of 36 shots from deep (47.2 percent).

Again, so much for size.

"They were definitely bigger than us," Hudson said. "But the way we looked at it, they had to guard us too. We have guys who can shoot the ball."

Guys that don't quit, also.

Chiozza is one of those guys. He already knew a little bit about fighting to the finish when adversity strikes. Anyone remember? Now, he knows even more.

"That was a lot of fun," he said.

Second-best (sore ribs and all) never felt so good.