KeVaughn Allen sank just three of his 11 field-goal tries, including just one of nine attempts for the 3-point line, but still finished with a team-best 18 points, thanks to going 11-for-12 from the free-throw line, in his latest takedown of his home state Hogs.
Gators Close Out Arkansas, Avoid Second Straight Late-Game Collapse
Thursday, January 10, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — With 33 seconds left and clinging to a two-point lead on the road, the Florida Gators huddled on their sideline Wednesday night amid the noise and nasty mounting pressure being applied by the Arkansas Razorbacks inside bombastic Bud Walton Arena. Was this seriously going to be another double-digit collapse in an early Southeastern Conference game?
"We'd had a couple defense lapses, definitely, but in the timeout we were saying, 'We have to close this game out! We're not going to let them take this away from us!' " UF forward Dontay Bassett recounted. "We needed a couple stops and couldn't be lackadaisical on defense and just hope it would happen."
And who exactly was doing the talking?
"Everyone," Bassett said. "We all wanted to win. That's why we got the result we got."
First, the Gators got the stop they needed most, then they got four free throws in the final 12 seconds from homegrown senior guard and noted Razorback killer KeVaughn Allen, then they got a 57-51 victory in their league road opener. Allen, a prep superstar from North Little Rock about two hours away, stood out despite an off-night shooting the ball. He finished with a team-high 18 points, plus five rebounds, thanks to a cool 11-for-12 performance from the free-throw line. UF (9-5, 1-1) put on a defensive clinic for basically 34 minutes, but a late Razorbacks run of 15-2 nearly wiped out a 15-point cushion over the final six minutes, awakening the home team and its crowd, many of whom had already exited the building before things got interesting.
"I had that pit in my stomach like I did Saturday," Florida coach Mike White said.
Guard KeVaughn Allen drives to the basket on Wednesday night at Bud Walton Arena as teammate Dontay Bassett battles for position inside. (Photo: Kaila Jones/UAA Communications)
Little wonder. It was just four nights earlier the Gators blew a 14-point lead with just over 10 minutes to go at home and lost to South Carolina on a fluky, Hail Mary-type buzzer-beater pass in the SEC opener. Had something similar happened in the team's league road debut — with No. 3 Tennessee coming to town this weekend looking like world-beaters — who knows how long it would have taken for the team to recover?
Instead, the Gators showed some collective substance in putting the South Carolina collapse in the rear view, going on the road — to a very a difficult venue — and unleashing some relentless defense. UF held the Hogs (10-4, 1-1) to 30 points below their 81-point season average, allowed just 30-percent shooting overall, 23.1 percent from the 3-point line (6 of 26) and forced 16 turnovers. Sophomore forward Mason Jones had a sizzling night, pouring in a career-high 30 points, but no teammate reached double figures, no Razorback scored off the bench and the team connected on just 15 of 26 free throws (57.7 percent).
"Florida was coming off a loss, and I knew they were going to come in here and really get after our guys," Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. "We just didn't match that intensity."
The two teams practically matched each other's offensive ineptitude, though.
As poorly as the Hogs shot, the Gators weren't much better: 31.0 percent from the floor and an identical 6-for-26 from distance. After Allen, freshman guard Noah Locke (10 points, 5 rebounds) was the only other UF player in double digits. Fifth-year swingman Jalen Hudson, who started in a retooled small-ball lineup, had nine points and six rebounds, while Bassett came off the bench to chip in seven points, all in the second half, and five boards.
"We made enough plays down the stretch, but had the wrong mentality late in the game, both offensively and defensively," White said. "It got electric in there and they had us a little rattled, but overall, to bounce back after that really heartbreaking loss we had — to have some of the same hurdles to overcome — it feels good. Anytime you can win here, my goodness, we'll take it."
Arkansas scored the game's first two baskets, working the ball in deep to 6-foot-11, 235-pound Daniel Gafford (9 points, 12 rebounds). The Razorbacks led early, 6-2, after a dunk by forward Adrio Bailey at the 15:58 mark, but the Gators scored the next 10 points while the Hogs (and their red-clad faithful) dealt with a disastrous drought. Over nearly 10 minutes, Arkansas missed 10 straight field goals and turned the ball over seven times, yet with three free throws along the way only trailed 15-11 when Jalen Harris snapped the spell with a driving layup.
UF, though, kept its cool, with freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard (6 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 turnover) maintaining pace in the half court, working through the Arkansas press and traps, and helping his team stretch out a 33-22 lead at the break.
A layup by Bassett, 3-pointer by Hudson and steal and layup by Locke opened up Florida's biggest lead, 48-32, and forced an Arkansas timeout with just over nine minutes left in the game, sending fans for the parking lot. The lead was still 15, at 51-36, after Locke dropped a 3-ball with 6:06 remaining.
And then it started.
Jalen Hudson (3) knifes through the Arkansas defense during Wednesday's action on his way to nine points and six rebounds. (Photo: Kaila Jones/UAA Communications)
Jones, a Texas junior-college transfer, scored nine during a 15-2 full court-pressing run. Over those final six minutes, a driving pull-up jumper by Hudson was the only field goal (in seven attempts) the Gators hit. Two Jones free throws cut UF's lead to 53-51 with just over a minute left. At Florida's end, Nembhard missed a driving layup attempt, Arkansas rebounded and called timeout with 33.1 seconds left and a chance to either tie or take the lead.
"It felt like we were just looking at the score, kind of hoping that the game would run out," Allen said. "We can't do that as a team. We have to stay poised and keep playing as a team. Keep fighting."
Bassett was a little more candid.
"We were up 15," Bassett said. "It was pitiful."
But the Gators banded together for that crucial stop they had to have to steal a game on the road.
Out of the timeout, it was Jones driving to the basket and getting off a floater that bounced away, but into the hands of Bailey, whose awkward, off-balance stick-back attempt also missed. The rebound caromed off the hands of a couple UF players and was heading out of bounds when UF's Kevarrius Hayes, saved and shoveled it back in bounds to Hudson, who shoveled it to Allen, the No. 1 all-time free-throw shooter in program history at 86.9 percent.
"Never," Allen said when asked if nerves and pressure of the moment may have cluttered his mind at the moment, what with so many family and friends in the house. "I'm confident in my ability to take my time and knock them down."
He dropped two with 12 seconds left to push the lead to four, and after another Arkansas miss, Allen knocked down two more with 2.3 seconds remaining and the Gators exited with a victory they made much harder on themselves. But a victory nonetheless. Under very stressful circumstances, both before and during the game.
"When we got up 15, we were different," White said. "Hopefully, we learn from that. We didn't learn from it Saturday, obviously, but hopefully, with two in a row, we will."
He paused.
"And I don't know that we'll be up 15 again [this season]."
