CHARLESTON, S.C. — Kerry Blackshear Jr., his team's leading scorer and rebounder, played just three minutes in the first half Thursday due to foul trouble. His Florida teammates picked him up with arguably their best all-around half of this young season in jumping to a 16-point lead at the break.
Then, just 90 seconds into the second half, Blackshear gathered a rebound in traffic, chinned the ball while being harassed by a couple Saint Joseph's defenders, and in pivoting away from one leveled the other with an elbow to the face.
Down went Hawks forward Taylor Funk, with a headache. Out went Blackshear, who was ejected from the game. Gone went UF's double-digit lead, which shrank to as few as two. But on to victory, nonetheless, went the Gators, who got a career game from sophomore forward Keyontae Johnson and went a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line inside the final minute to get out of TD Arena with a 70-62 win in opening-round play of the Charleston Classic.
"We didn't handle adversity very well with 'KJ' going out," UF coach Mike White surmised. "That said, down the stretch, I thought we showed tremendous toughness."
Minus Blackshear, Johnson held things together by scoring a career-best 22 points and equaling his career-high of 12 rebounds over 37 exhausting minutes, also a personal high. Sophomore point guard Andrew Nembhard also had to take a seat due to foul trouble in the second half, but finished with 16 points, six rebounds and a couple assists. Sophomore guard Noah Locke stepped out of his shooting slump with 13 points and a trio of 3s, while freshman forward Omar Payne came off the bench to grab nine rebounds and block three shots. Freshman guard Scottie Lewis had eight points, four rebounds and a pair of blocks and steals.
It was a team victory for a team down a couple starters in Blackshear and freshman guard Tre Mann (concussion), plus backup center Gorjak Gak (hamstring).
"We haven't been playing with much confidence. We've been missing shots and getting down on ourselves," Johnson said. "[Sunday], we hit some shots and everybody had a lot of energy that carried through the game."
Good thing, too.
A driving layup by Hawks guard Ryan Daly, who poured in a game-high 25 points, with 56.8 seconds to go cut what was an 18-point lead late in the first half to just two, at 64-62. From there, though, Payne, Nembhard and Locke each knocked down a pair of free throws, while the UF defense forced a turnover and a missed shot on two pivotal SJU possessions in that final minute while their grad-transfer leader, Blackshear, was in the locker room.
"We were all like 'next-guy up,' " Johnson said.
Florida forwardOmar Payne (5) swats away a Saint Joseph's shot Thursday, one of the freshman's three blocks that paired with a career-high nine rebounds in a first-round victory at the Charleston Classic.
With the win, the Gators (3-2) moved into the tournament's winners bracket and will face cross-state foe Miami (4-1) in Friday's second round at noon. The Hurricanes moved on by beating Missouri State, 74-70, in the first game of the day. The UF-UM winner will play in the Classic's championship game Sunday night, while the loser will get a consolation bracket date earlier in the day.
"I know they have talent and I know we'll have our hands full and we'll have to play better than we just did," White said of the Hurricanes. "We have to continue increasing our confidence, offensively."
The Gators took a couple steps in that direction against the Hawks (2-3) in the first half, but seemingly took one back out of the break.
UF came into the tournament with its guards shooting a combined 21.8 percent from the 3-point line, so it was encouraging when Locke bombed in a 3-ball just 19 seconds in, then another two possessions later, part of an 8-0 blitz to start the game. Daly got the Hawks on the board, but then Nembhard nailed a triple as part of a mini-run that opened a 16-4 lead less five minutes into the game.
Blackshear (1 point, 2 rebounds, 3 assists) got his second personal and took a seat at 14:29, but the Gators still managed to build an 18-point cushion, at 31-13 with just over four minutes to go in the period, as Nembhard, Locke and Johnson each hit 3s along the way.
"It's easy to play hard and with intensity and confidence, and be locked in defensively at a high level, when you see the ball going in," said White, whose team led, 41-25 at the break, after holding the Hawks to 26-percent shooting, including 1-for-15 from distance. "Throughout guys' careers, they learn the importance of maintaining those factors, whether it's going in or not."
Then came Blackshear sequence at the 18:30 mark of the second half. Officials stopped the game and after a long replay ruled Blackshear had committed a "Flagrant 2" foul, which is accompanied by an automatic ejection.
Five minutes later, the lead was still 14 when the Hawks took off on a 13-4 that cut the Gators' lead to five. With 7:05 remaining, the margin was four, then three on a layup by Funk (11 points, 5 rebounds) with 6:07 to go.
From there, White basically opted to run clock and try to shorten the game with Nembhard dribbling out possessions, what with some of his best offensive options unavailable and Payne, a novice in the half court offense, forced to play heavy minutes (28). The lead bounced from as high as seven to as low as two, the latter when Daly raced coast to coast for a layup with 56.8 seconds remaining.
Johnson followed with miss on a hard drive, but Payne crashed the glass, got the rebound, was fouled and made both free throws with 32.2 seconds for a two-possession lead. At the other end, guard Myles Douglas (8 points, 7 rebounds) had the ball tipped away away, as he tried to dribble through a couple defenders, and into the hands of Johnson, who shoveled it to Nembhard, who was fouled and made two more free throws with 21.6 seconds left. Six-point game.
Daly's missed 3 bounced out of bounds, and Locked iced matters with a pair from the line with 6.5 remaining, sending UF into the winner's bracket and the Gators to their locker room to be reunited with Blackshear.
He'll be back out there Friday against the Hurricanes, presumably for more than five minutes.
"We communicated and told everyone to stay together," Johnson said after making nine of his 15 field-goal attempts and a couple 3s to go with those dozen boards and two blocks. "We stayed locked in."
