Florida Gators

WHAT HAPPENED: Down 13 in the second half, the Gators bombarded the Aggies with a one-for-the-ages 3-point shooting display, as senior KeVaughn Allen and freshman Noah Locke combined for 58 points in a huge comeback Southeastern Conference win Tuesday night at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. Allen scored a season-high 31 points, while Locke rained in an unfreshman-like 27, and together hit 19 of their 34 shots and 15 of their 23 from 3-point range. As a team, the Gators shot 47 percent overall and 49 from distance (an O'Dome-record 18 for 37), with most of the damage coming in a second half when the home team erased a 13-point lead, mostly by making 11 of its 15 attempts from deep. That's 73.3 percent. The Aggies, who started the game ranked 11th in the SEC in field-goal percentage and dead-last from the 3-point line, shredded UF and its league-best scoring defense in the first half by shooting 55 percent overall and a ridiculous 63.6 percent from long distance. Guard Wendell Mitchell (25 points), who came in just 7-for-28 in SEC play from the arc, went 5-for-5, as A&M took a 13-point lead, 46-33, in the locker room at halftime. The Florida comeback started when Locke hit three consecutive 3s in a 9-2 run that soon became a 19-4 burst that was capped when Allen dropped a 3-ball in transition for Florida's first lead since just under six minutes into the game. The long-ball carnage continued, as Locke and Allen traded big shots, with the former a perfect 4-for-4 from deep after halftime. UF built a lead that grew to as many as eight, but it took some stops and free throws down the stretch to finish the biggest comeback win of the season. Freshman forward Keyontae Johnson, in his second straight, made a huge basket late and had a career-high nine rebounds, five on the offensive end, to go with three steals. Freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard had a career-high 11 assists. 
 
WHAT IT MEANS: After losing three of the first four SEC games for the first time in 18 years, the Gators have back-to-back league wins to even their conference mark through six games and did so by doing to an opponent what a bunch of opponents had done to them: rally from down double digits. In winning their first SEC home game of the young season, the Gators also furthered the process of developing a new starting lineup of three freshmen and took the first step in shoring up a rotation minus fourth-year junior Keith Stone, who was lost for the season Saturday to a knee injury. 

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Locke's previous season-high was 18 points. His previous 3-point high was five, which he done twice. In a career-high 32 minutes, Locke finished 9-for-18 from the floor, 7-for-13 from the arc and knocked down both his free throws. How good is this kid going to be? And how many points is going to score and 3-pointers is he going to make?



STAGGERING STATISTIC: Florida began the night as the only team out of 353 in Division I without a player to reach 20 points in a game this season. On a night the Gators needed that to change, they got two. 

UP NEXT: Florida (11-7, 3-3), along with 11 of its fellow conference brothers, steps out of league play to face Texas Christian (13-4, 2-3) for the annual SEC/Big 12 Challenge, the ESPN made-for-TV that for the fourth straight season will be staged in January (between the NFL conference title games and Super Bowl) for maximum viewing exposure. TCU has a home date Wednesday night against Texas. The Horned Frogs are 8-1 in Fort Worth. The Gators are 5-1 in the SEC/Big 12 event since its inception, including 3-0 under Coach Mike White.