Allen Breaks Out in Electrifying Win over No. 12 Auburn

Saturday, February 24

Gainesville, FL

8:30 PM

Florida Gators

Auburn

"Aggressive" KeVaughn Allen returned Saturday night against Auburn. (Photo: Allison Curry/UAA Communications)

Allen Breaks Out in Electrifying Win over No. 12 Auburn

Sunday, February 25, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

Box Score

Guard KeVaughn Allen, scoreless just three nights earlier in a loss at Tennessee, bombed the Tigers for six 3-pointers and 24 points.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Just inside the 10-minute mark Saturday night, KeVaughn Allen was jogging up the floor by his team's bench during a stoppage of play. At that point, Allen had taken five field-goal attempts against 12th-ranked Auburn and missed them all. As he slowed and walked past Mike White, the Gators' coach lobbed a question at his shooting guard.

"You want me to take you out?" White asked. "Or are you going to keep shooting?"

Allen, ever stoic, came back with the right answer.

"Gonna keep shooting," he said.

And did he ever.

Allen made his last three shots of the half half, all 3-pointers, including a miracle 70-footer at the buzzer. He came back after intermission and, again, hit his next three shots, and later in the period bombed in a pair of 3s over a 14-second span in the last two-plus minutes, then added a pair of game-icing free throws with 5.6 seconds left to pace UF on a electric night at Exactech Arena that ended with a 72-66 victory over the Southeastern Conference front-runners.

Just three nights after going scoreless for the first time since the middle of his freshman season — a run of 84 games — Allen poured in 24 points, including six 3-pointers, while junior swingman Jalen Hudson chipped in 19 points and senior point guard Chris Chiozza tallied a career-high 12 assists, none bigger than the threaded needle he dished to Hudson for a layup, foul and 3-point play with 26.8 seconds to put their team in front for good.

With the win, the Gators (18-11, 9-7) stopped a three-game losing streak, plus a run of six losses over the previous eight SEC games, and ended the night in a four-way tie for third in the league standings, alongside Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi State, with two regular-season games remaining. In the bigger picture, beating Auburn (24-5, 12-4) padded the UF postseason résumé in a big way, as the Tigers came in at No. 6 in the Ratings Percentage Index, giving the Gators seven wins over RPI Top 50s.

"We were on a losing streak, so we weren't worried about anything except trying to get a win," Chiozza said. "Everybody wants to go to the tournament. We're not going to sit here and say we're not thinking about it. Of course, we are. But we were also trying to stay in the moment. We've had trouble doing that this year, but I don't think at any point tonight we thought about anything else other than winning this game."

Auburn came in needing to win just one of its final three games to clinch at least a share of the program's first regular-season SEC championship since 1999. The Tigers also came in with an offense that led the league in scoring, at 84.9 points per game, and with a confident bunch, led by shooting guard and SEC Player of the Year candidate Bryce Brown, as opposed to the fragile home team in the midst of an ugly tailspin.

So what happened? Florida's defense showed up for the second straight game. After holding Tennessee to just 62 points on its home floor (albeit in a loss), the Gators held the Tigers to nearly 19 points below their average, limited Brown (16.8 per game) to just six points on 2-for-8 shooting, and forced 16 turnovers. The Tigers came alive in the second half, making 13 of their first 22 shots, only to miss their last five.

"We didn't play very well, but I give Florida a lot of credit," Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said.

Especially given how the game started — with starters Allen, forward Keith Stone and center Kevarrius Hayes on the bench after showing up late for the team's film session Friday night. Instead, White went with a pair of freshmen in center Dontay Bassett (career-high 12 points, 6 rebounds in his first career start) and Mike Okauru, plus Hudson in the first five.

It worked.

The Gators (and the sellout crowd) had energy from the tip, as UF raced to a nine-point edge less than seven minutes in. The Tigers, though, weren't about to go away. They tied the game at 15 and stuck around for nearly the rest of the half. The score was knotted at 24 when Allen, who came off the bench at the five minutes in, hit his first shot, a 3-ball, with 1:42 to play. Then he hit another at the one-minute mark to go up six.

And then, after an Auburn shot caromed out of bounds with 2.6 seconds left, Allen took an inbounds from Chiozza at the right sideline, then turned and launched a 70-footer while sailing out of bounds. The ball went high into the O'Dome night and banged into the goal for a nine-point lead at the break.

"I thought it was an airball," Allen said.

Added Hudson: "I guess we all underestimated those muscles popping out of his jersey."

KeVaughn Allen lets fly the 70-footer that rattled in as time expired in the first half and pushed the Gators to a nine-point lead at the break.

Allen stayed hot in the second half, with his first 3 of the period opening a 14-point lead at the 17:25 mark.

Then Auburn started chipping away.

As the score grew closer, Florida had to fend off thoughts of those nine blown second-half leads — four by double digits, including two of the three losses during the losing skid. Instead, the Gators let their fans do the angsting (which they no doubt did).

"We had to stay locked in," Allen said. "We couldn't just hope to win the game. We had to go and take it."

The Tigers, on back-to-back 3s from Brown and forward Mustapha Heron (22 points, 6 rebounds) went up 57-56 with 3:52 to play, but Hudson returned the lead to the Gators with a 3-ball just nine seconds later. Twice more, Auburn took the lead, the last time when Heron knocked down two free throws with 1:58 for a 64-63 edge.

Then came another Allen 3 for the lead, plus a stop by the UF defense that got Chiozza to the free-throw line with 51.8 seconds left. He missed both. At the other end, free throws by point guard Jared Harper tied the game at 66 with 41.9 seconds to go.

"Most likely, we were going to try and get a 3-ball off, but they were in the gaps so heavy that it was like they didn't even want me to touch the ball, much less get a 3," Hudson said. "So I just had to do something to get to the basket."

Hudson used the Tigers' overplay against them, cutting into the lane and taking a gorgeous pass from Chiozza that Hudson finished through contact, got fouled and hit the free throw to make it 69-66 with 26.9 remaining.

"It was a better pass than it was a shot," Hudson said. "I don't know how he saw me, but he got me a layup."

Auburn missed another 3-pointer, with UF forward Egor Koulechov securing the rebound, and the foul, but making just one of two free throws at 15.3 seconds remaining. The lead, though, was four. The Tigers' next long-ball miss landed in Allen's hands.

He hit both free throws with 5.6 left and the O'Dome had a huge reason to celebrate.

"I made a few shots and it got me going," said Allen, who attempted just three field goals at Tennessee and had combined for 37 points the previous five games. "Coach White always tells me to stay aggressive and keep shooting no matter what happens."

Sometimes, KeVaughn Allen actually listens.

"I wish everyone in this room would tell him that," White said at his postgame news conference. "I wish any of our students that see him on campus [Sunday] and Monday will tell him to shoot the basketball."

Look what it did for a team teetering on the brink.