There goes the loose ball (away from UF's Kevarrius Hayes and through the legs of teammate Keith Stone) that Michigan State forward Kyle Ahrens scooped and dunk in the final seconds to clinch MSU's win.
Spartans Lay Out, Make Plays Down Stretch in 63-59 Win
Saturday, December 8, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With 11 seconds left and his team up by two, Michigan State guard Cassius Winston tried to feed a bounce pass into the post for center Nick Ward, a play that Florida's Kevarrius Hayes had snuffed out. Hayes got a hand on the ball (but not two hands, as he's been coached in such situation), and it rolled away, between the legs of teammate Keith Stone and into the open floor.
Unfortunately for the Gators, Spartans forward Kyle Ahrens was by himself on the wing. He picked up the ball — with two hands — in stride, drove baseline and thundered home a two-handed dunk, beating the shot clock by a half-second, to give his team a two-possession lead with 8.7 seconds left.
After the game, a 63-59 victory for the 10th-ranked Spartans, UF coach Mike White clearly was seething over a play he believed was all about fundamentals and effort; a play he believed was one of several that looked second-nature to the tough-as-nails visitors from the Big Ten Conference who stared down a spectacular and sold-out environment Saturday afternoon at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center.
"We didn't get on the floor for that loose ball, like several others. They did. They deserved to win," White said. "There's not a coach in college basketball that has begged his guys to stop dribbling out of loose balls, to stop being casual with the basketball, and to dive on the floor for loose balls than I have."
Sort of like he's begged them to talk on defense, sprint out of ball screens, fire the post when warranted, rotate in coverage — and that's just on the defensive end. The laundry list of issues on the offensive side is fairly lengthy, but far more complicated with this group. Whatever the case, there were any number of possessions that could have made the difference and better positioned the Gators (5-4) for a huge win against one of the nation's elite programs. Instead, the Spartans (8-2) made them.
"I feel like we can stay in the game with any team in the country," said UF freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard, who was his team's best player Saturday. "But we have a lot of stuff we can improve on, right now."
Kyle Ahrens scored all seven of his points in the final 3:03, but this dunk, off a loose ball, with 8.7 left was the killer. (Photo: Kate Venezio/UAA Communications)
The 6-foot-9, 245-pound Ward, along with backup forward Xavier Tillman, destroyed UF down low on the way to a combined 27 points on 12-for-15 shooting to go with 14 rebounds and four steals. Ahrens did not score for nearly the game's first 37 minutes, but threw in seven points down the stretch on three baskets that absolutely came at killer moments after the Gators had fashioned a game comeback from a double-digit deficit. The MSU backcourt tandem of Joshua Langford and Cassius Winston combined for 23 points and eight assists, but also seven turnovers against a UF defense that held the Spartans, ranked sixth nationally in offensive efficiency and averaging 87.6 points coming in, to a season-low point total.
"We didn't play well, but I'm gonna take this win and get out of here," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.
Michigan State shot 51 percent for the game, but went through a nasty second-half drought before both teams got hot late in the game, especially the Gators, who despite another rough offensive night (36.5 percent overall, just 6-for-24 from the 3-point line) erased a 12-point deficit and four times worked to within one possession of tying or taking the lead, including twice in the final 3:22.
Florida senior guard KeVaughn Allen (13 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists) hit a 3-pointer at the 3:22 mark to cut MSU's lead to 56-53, but at the other end Tillman found Ahrens unguarded in the corner for a wide-open 3-ball counter to push the margin back to six. Then Nembhard, who hit six of 12 shots from the floor, drove to a layup with 2:50 to go, drawing the Gators within four. Guess what? On MSU's next turn upcourt, Ahrens got a late-shot clock layup to push the lead back six.
UF forward Keith Stone (8 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal) hit a baseline jumper to work back within four, and the Spartans' next time down Ahrens missed a late-clock 3 that Hayes rebounded. Again, it was Nembhard with the driving layup with 1:21 to go, cutting MSU's lead to two points, 61-59, for just the second time since the first three minutes of the game.
At Florida's end, though, Allen drove the lane with the idea of kicking the ball to Hayes rolling to the basket, but the defense closed off the pass and forced Allen into a bad, super-contested layup that the Spartans rebounded with 43 seconds left and immediately called a timeout. The Gators defended magnificently on the ensuing possession, forcing Winston into a bad pass with the shot clocking ticking down.
The ball was there for either team. The Spartans got it, scored and won.
"They wanted it more," Allen said.
Said Nembhard: "Grab the ball with two hands. Be fully vested to get it."
And, finally, this from Hayes: "It's disheartening. It's on me. I feel like, in that moment, you have to make big plays. Grabbing that ball probably would have decided if we go up in the next 20 seconds; the difference between winning or losing."
There in rested White's postgame frustration. It was only two weeks ago, after returning home from losing two of three games (both outcomes close) at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, that White put his players through loose-ball drives that forced them to dive on the floor. They did it for a week, then begged off.
"We're back to it," White declared. "Including pregame."
Freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half, including eight over the final nine minutes to give the Gators a chance. (Photo: Kelly Chase/UAA Communications)
Fixing things won't be that simple. The Florida coaches know that. The Gators have some talented players, but they do undisciplined things that add up over a course of a game. They've now lost a trio of close games to high-major opponents where one, two or three possessions over the course of 40 minutes could have translated to a better result at the end of those games.
Until some very simple things are fixed, the frustration will continue to mount in the coaches' offices. At some point, the same feelings need to fester in the locker room, as well.
"I'd like for them to get frustrated about those things [and] I'm not sure they are [frustrated] about making the same mistake over and over and expecting a different result. It's insane," White said. "It's got to be more important to us when we don't get on the floor for a loose ball and the other team gets it. We should be calling each other out and raising our hand and saying, 'I can't believe it! That will never happen again!' And that's just one factor."
