GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Rowdy Reptiles have been screaming for KeVaughn Allen to shoot the ball for four Florida basketball seasons. He really needed to listen to them Wednesday night.
Down by one point in overtime, Allen got the ball in the corner with a couple seconds on the clock and opted to drive the baseline rather than pull-up for the go-ahead jump shot attempt. The final horn sounded as the senior guard ran into a wall of giant LSU bodies and the 10th-ranked Tigers got out of Exatech Arena/O'Connell Center with 79-78 victory that pushed them on the threshold of a Southeastern Conference regular-season title. In doing so, they likely pushed the Gators (17-13, 9-8) off the NCAA Tournament bubble, despite a rip-roaring, season-high 33-point outburst from fifth-year senior swingman Jalen Hudson, who took the "Senior Night" festivities to heart by breaking out of a season-long scoring slump in spectacular fashion.
But in defeat.
"I'm sad," Hudson said after going 11-for-21 from the floor, 4-for-9 from the 3-point arc, seven of eight from free-throw line and over one 15-minute stretch in the second half and into overtime scored 27 of his team's 30 points. "I gave it all I had. I wanted to go out with a win. It's just a tough loss."
Really, really tough. A second straight, to boot. UF very likely would have locked up an NCAA at-large berth with a victory, as it would have given the Gators a sweep of the Tigers (25-5, 15-2), who now need only to beat Vanderbilt, winless in league play, at home Saturday to clinch at least a share of the program's first SEC crown since 2009. Instead, Florida lost to the league's best after losing to one of its worst (Georgia, with 16 league defeats) at home over the weekend.
Jalen Hudsonscored 33 points in defeat. His season-high coming in was 17.
Tigers sophomore point guard Tremont Waters led his team with 19 points, six assists, three steals and overcame six turnovers by making a game-tying, length-of-the-floor drive and layup just before the regulation buzzer sounded. Freshman forward Emmitt Williams came off the bench to score 13 points and grab 15 rebounds to help the Tigers throttle the Gators in the post to the tune of a 46-36 advantage on the glass and 44-26 scoring margin in the paint.
"Total team effort," said LSU coach Will Wade, whose team played its seventh overtime game of the year (winning its fifth) and finished unbeaten on the SEC road. "It's kind of what we've done all year."
After Hudson, the Gators got 15 points and four steals from freshman forward Keyontae Johnson, plus eight points, a career-high 15 rebounds and three blocks from senior center Kevarrius Hayes. UF shot 60 percent in the second half, but only got four points from Allen over 40 minutes, including zero field-goal attempts after halftime.
He should have had at least one.
"All you can do is continue to preach that everyone who gets between those lines needs to be aggressive, execute at a high level and take the shots the defense gives us," White said. "I talk to these guys about having agendas. Sometimes it's the selfish agenda, but sometimes it's the passive agenda, and the confidence agenda. Those things shouldn't be going through your mind. If you're open, shoot it."
If only.
Florida, despite falling back quickly by five in overtime, twice crawled back within one, the second time at 79-78 after two free throws by Hayes with 2:22 left. The two teams swapped a pair of misses each, with the last of those ending with a UF possession and the Gators calling a timeout with 7.2 seconds to go.
White knew exactly what he wanted.
"Get it to Jalen Hudson at half court, flatten out the floor, let him play in space and get downhill," White explained later.
It had worked magnificently to that point, with Hudson doing damage both inside and out. This time, the Tigers jumped into a 3-2 zone that closed off the high gaps as Hudson looked to penetrate. When he made a move, Hudson lost his footing and shoveled the ball to Johnson, who pitched it to the corner for Allen.
There were two seconds left.
Said White: "At that point, you just have to shoot it."
Said Allen: "I wanted to drive it and make a good, strong play at the goal. I thought I had more time than what I did. Obviously, I didn't."
Two weeks ago, when UF upset LSU at Baton Rouge, Allen scored all 21 of his points in the second half and overtime of what was the team's biggest win of the season. In this second half and overtime: zero shots, zero points.
"HIs aggressiveness wasn't the same," White said.
Kevarrius Hayes was a warrior against the bigger, stronger LSU front court, on his way to a career-high 15 rebounds over 33 minutes.
Whether the game ever should have made it to overtime certainly was up for debate. The Gators saw an eight-point lead with six minutes to go vaporized by a 10-0 LSU run that had the Tigers in front. LSU twice led by three inside three minutes, but Hudson each time made it a one-point game, including a steal and run-out slam-dunk with 29.1 seconds to go to pull the Gators within 70-69.
LSU's Skylar Mays missed a front end of a 1-and-1 with 28.6 seconds left, then out of timeout the Gators worked until Hudson was free for a 3-ball from the left cover that rimmed and fell through with 6.2 seconds left for a 72-70 lead that blew off the O'Dome roof.
But Waters, the Tigers' lightning bug, took the inbound and bee-lined straight through a spread-out UF defense — clearly fearful of a drive and pitch for a 3-point attempt for the win — and dashed to a driving layup that tied the game with a half-second left to force overtime.
"I don't feel one man can stand in my way in that situation," Waters said.
He was right.
For UF, it was a pity its one-man scoring show wasn't rewarded with a signature senior send-off.
"We had our chances," Hudson said. "We should have capitalized."
They didn't. Now, the Gators' chances to finish the season where they want are very close to running out. This was the one they had to have; and they had their shot. Didn't make it.
