GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Keyontae Johnson did not have a very good first half. The Florida freshman forward played some of his worst defense since stepping into the starting lineup 11 games ago. Consequently, but certainly not all to his doing, the Gators did not have a very good first half against underdog and visiting Missouri, either.

"I was slacking and giving up a lot of buckets," Johnson said. "Turnovers, too." 

He wasn't the only one. Johnson, though, helped atone for his first-half miscues. On that front, he also wasn't the only one. 

Senior guard KeVaughn Allen scored all about three of his game-high 17 points after halftime, including two game-sealing free throws with 5.5 seconds left, as the Gators finished off a second-half comeback from a dozen points down to win a season-best fourth straight game with a 64-60 dodge of the Tigers in their Southeastern Conference game Saturday at sold-out Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. 

On an afternoon when a lot went wrong (like no field goals over the last 4:17 of the game), just enough went right for the Gators to "find a way" to pull one out. Fitting, what with members of the 1993-94 UF team, the first in program history to reach the Final Four, back in the O'Dome to celebrate that team remarkable team's 25th anniversary.  

After missing all five of his first-half field-goal tries, Allen went 4-for-5 from the floor after intermission and 9-for-10 from the free-throw line. Johnson added 13 points and a game-best seven rebounds, grabbing three of them in the final 1:18, the last two on errant Mizzou attempts to take the lead in the final 30 seconds. 

On the first, following a missed layup on a hard drive by Tigers guard Javon Pickett (15 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals), Johnson was fouled and went to the line with a chance to put his team up three points by making a couple free throws and 23 seconds left. He made one. Trailing by two points, Mizzou went for the win, but Pickett's 3-pointer bounced away. Again, Johnson skied for the board, but this time on his way down to the floor he pitched a mid-air pass to Allen, the No. 1 free-throw shooter in UF history at 87.7 percent. 

"Smart play," Florida coach Mike White said. "When 'K' is at the line you can just about count it." 

Allen bagged both and the Gators (16-11, 8-6) completed a second straight unbeaten week and continued what not too long seemed like a highly unlikely bid for an NCAA Tournament berth. Before, UF was a bubble team in possibility only. Now, the Gators have played themselves into a far more enviable situation, with plenty of work still to do. 

A loss to the Tigers (12-14, 3-11), though, might very well have knee-capped all the good accomplished over the last couple weeks. So this was a good day all around, even with the angst.

"We definitely sensed the possibility of a letdown," said White, whose team was just three days removed from a shocking overtime road win at No. 13 LSU, which earlier Saturday beat No. 5 Tennessee to create a three-way logjam (along with No. 4 Kentucky) atop the league standings. "We started talking about Missouri in the locker room at Baton Rouge."

The Gators, though, did have the same energy for this game as they had in Baton Rouge. UF led, 11-10, eight minutes in, but an 11-3 Missouri run, including back-to-back 3s by Xavier Pinson and Torrence Watson, had the Gators down eight. The margin grew to nine at halftime when point guard Jordan Geist (16 points, 3 rebounds, 39 minutes) threw in a driving floater at the buzzer. 

Florida went to the locker room with the same number of field goals (7) as turnovers. The Gators shot just 30.4 percent for the period, with their top two scorers, Allen and freshman guard Noah Locke, combining for three points and no field goals. Missouri, meanwhile, shot 43 percent through 20 minutes and went 4-for-10 from distance. 

The halftime conversation in the UF locker room was not pleasant, especially on the subject of defense, with Mizzou having scored 16 points in the paint and too many on straight-line drives.

"We had to make up for it in the second half," Johnson said. 

They also had to get either Allen or Locke going. 

"That's not what I want," Allen said of his latest slow start. 

Like in Baton Rouge, he had a better finish. 

 
Out of intermission, the Tigers took their lead up to 12, at 40-28, but the game's tenor took a turn when Missouri 6-foot-10 forward Jeremiah Tilmon, the largest player on the floor, got his fourth foul with 17:01 to go. It was ruled a "flagrant," which gave the Gators two free throws (Kevarrius Hayes made both) and the ball, with Allen hitting a 3 to quickly trim the lead to seven. 

A technical foul on Tigers coach Cuonzo Martin at the 12:56 mark netted more free throws, as the Gators slowly cut into the margin. They took their first lead on Locke's only bucket of the game, a fall-away, end-of-clock 3-pointer, to go up 53-52 with seven minutes left, but back-to-back Mizzou baskets and the Tigers up three again barely a minute later. 

It was UF's 6-0 run — on a basket, then two free throws by Hayes, and pull-up jumper by senior back swingman Jalen Hudson (11 points, 5 rebounds) — that finally got the Gators in front for good. The lead was three, but twice was taken back to one, with backup forward Nikko Reed missing the free throw end of an "and-one" opportunity that would have tied the game with 1:18 remaining.

"Both teams played hard," Martin said. 

Johnson grabbed the rebound off the Reed miss. Then another after a big UF defensive stop on Mizzou's next possession. And then another one after an even bigger stop — the last one — which Johnson made even better by making the heady play and shoveling the ball to Allen. 

This was a game the Gators very well could have lost and, frankly, probably would have earlier this season. Consider this: Florida converted a season-low three 3-point shots on 15 attempts (20 percent). Remember when the Gators couldn't win without making 3s. Now, they've done so on consecutive Saturdays. 

It was far from perfect, but good teams fighting for survival need games (need wins) like this one. 

"It's about all five guys coming together and wanting it more," Allen said. "It's happening more with each game."