GAINESVILLE, Fla. — At first glance, when the ball left Florida forward Keyontae Johnson's hands late Wednesday night, it looked to be headed high and well out of reach of the intended target.
That target, though, was Scottie Lewis, meaning normal physics did not apply.
"Yeah, but I didn't know it was going to be that high," Lewis said.
Johnson was parked on the left wing of the 3-point line when he spotted Lewis, the 6-foot-5 quick-twitch freak, darting toward the bucket on the baseline, his finger pointing toward the goal. Johnson threw a two-handed pass about three feet above the rim. Lewis went airborne, seemed to hit another a gear during his elevation, caught the ball with two hands high above the goal and thundered it through the bucket.
The play came with less than two minutes to go, slammed LSU into a 15-point hole and provided the highlight moment of a high-end performance by the host Gators, who shot nearly 55 percent from the floor, turned the ball over just five times and played terrific defense in a wire-to-wire 81-66 victory at Exatech Arena/O'Connell Center that may have been their most complete Southeastern Conference display of the season.
Had some star power, too.
Freshman Scottie Lewis goes airborne for one of his electrifying dunks on the Tigers.
Johnson poured in a career-high 25 points, plus 11 rebounds and five assists over 37 minutes for his seventh double-double of the season. Johnson, who went 11-for-15 from the floor, had 17 points in the first half, hitting his first six field goal attempts to help stake his team to a 14-point lead and set the tone for the evening. Lewis had a career-high 18 points on 8-for-12 shooting, plus four assists and his usual lock-down defense that helped suffocate one of the best backcourts in the SEC. Sophomore point guard Andrew Nembhard had 17 points and four assists in captaining his team through LSU's pressure zone defenses and initiating terrific ball movement that yielded 7-for-10 shooting from the 3-point line in the second half.
"We got whipped every phase of the game, not much else to say" Tigers coach Will Wade said. "We got killed in every aspect of play. I wish I had more to tell you. Just beat everywhere."
For the Gators (18-10, 10-5), the win was the fourth in five games and moved them into a tie with the Tigers (19-9, 10-5), losers of five of the previous seven, for third place in the SEC standings with three games remaining.
In the bigger picture, Florida is playing its best basketball of the season and did not let last weekend's setback at 12th-ranked Kentucky — a hard-fought 65-59 loss — undermine the progress the Gators made in winning the previous three games; particularly the selfless way they won those games.
"I think we're getting really close to understanding what we are when we're at our best," Nembhard said. "I think Kentucky put in perspective at the highest level of what we really need to do on both sides of the floor to play our best. I think we took a step toward that this game. We didn't play a full 40, but we were better."
From the tip.
UF scored the first nine points of the game, led by 10 before the first media timeout, and built a 14-point first-half lead behind the strength of Johnson's hard, downhill drives through the LSU defense. The Gators missed nine of their 11 attempts from the arc, but shot almost 58 percent through the first 20 minutes to lead 41-31 at the break. Twice in the first 90 seconds of the second half, the Tigers trimmed the margin to nine, but UF started raining 3s — one each by Nembhard, Johnson and Kerry Blackshear Jr. (8 points, 8 rebounds) — and opened a 19-point lead with just over 10 minutes to go.
LSU sophomore forward Emmitt Williams almost single-handedly drew the Tigers back within 10 (but no closer), scoring 25 points on 10-for-12 shooting, all in the low post. Freshman forward Trenton Watford had a game too, with 15 points and 11 rebounds, but UF's defense on the perimeter nearly vanquished the backcourt of Javonte Smart (8 points) and 2019 All-SEC selection and team scoring leader Skylar Mays (season-low 3 points on 1-for-6 shooting).
Smart and Mays came into the game averaging a combined 28.9 points per game.
"They did a great job," Wade said of the defensive performance of the Gators, particularly against Mays, who was at 17.4 points per game in SEC play. "They kept length on him with Lewis. He did a good job on ball-screen coverage and wouldn't allow any space to move."
Lewis was awfully good on the offensive end, as well. He scored nine in each half, buried two of three from deep, and added two exclamation slam-dunks on alley-oop passes; the first on a pass Nembhard, the second the aforementioned high-wire act from Johnson.
"We're both high flyers," Johnson said with a smile.
Both team players, also.
Apparently, they're a lot of those on this squad.
Keyontae Johnson does a post-game celebratory jig following his team's win.
"We just need to build and build on how we're playing, and I don't think it's going to be hard to do," Lewis said. "It's about putting our individual mindsets aside and locking in as a team. Right now, honestly, I think everybody is there. We know what it takes. Everyone knows their roles and once you buy into that there's not much you can't accomplish."
The youthful Gators have been searching all season for an identity. If they have found it — and these last five games are it — they've done so at a very opportune time.
"I think we're getting closer to the way we want to play," White said. "Unfortunately, we didn't figure it out immediately … but we didn't think we would, either."
Such is college basketball life with a bunch of kids. Four months later, the kids are all right. They're figuring stuff out, playing the right way, having fun, winning games.
