GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The press that Vanderbilt threw at Florida in the final minutes Wednesday night. The one that turned what looked like a rout for the home team into a root-canal finish for its coach. That was the first thing Mike White was asked about following his team's way-closer-than-necessary victory over the Commodores. 

White, though, wasn't thinking about what Vandy did as much as how his UF players reacted. Which was to say, not very well. 

"All you think about are the things we could have done better and should have done better down the stretch, and what we need to do better in the future," White said. "The way we handled that lead, both offensively and defensively, press attack, ill-advised shots, getting to shooters late … ." 

He stopped himself. 

"That said, Vanderbilt was terrific." 

So was Florida for about 30 minutes before those aforementioned breakdowns had the Gators playing defense with just a four-point lead in the final half-minute. They got the stop, sophomore guard Tre Mann hit two free throws and a 78-71 victory at Exactech Arena/O'Connell and third straight Southeastern Conference win was in the books. 

Ah, but the unnecessary stress. 

"It's a little frustrating," sophomore guard Noah Locke said of the Gators letting their collective guard down against an opponent looking for its first league win; and on their home floor, no less. "When you're trying to win at a high level and trying to close out games, playing a whole 40 is something we've got to do. Just have to be able to stay focused throughout the whole game." 
 
Mann led five players in double-figure scoring with 15 points, with junior forward Colin Castleton scoring all 13 of his points after halftime to go with five rebounds. Locke had 12 points, joining Mann by hitting a trio of 3s, and fourth-year junior guard Tyree Appleby had 12 points, six assists and went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in the final 1:40. Sophomore guard Scottie Lewis, sidelined the last four games due to health and safety protocols, came off the bench to score 10 points, all in the first half, in his first on-court action since Jan. 9. 

The Gators (9-4, 6-3), who pulled into a tie for second place in the SEC standings with LSU, shot nearly 52 percent for the game, including 54 percent after halftime, but ultimately got out-played and out-hustled over the final 10 minutes. The Commodores (4-8, 0-6) shot just 43 percent overall, but won the battle of the boards 35-29, including 15-8 on the offensive glass, and out-scored UF 14-2 on second-chance points and 30-28 in the paint. 

"I just think Vanderbilt played a little tougher," White said. 

Commodores sophomore guard Scottie Pippin Jr., surely did in going for a career-high 32 points — 12-for-22 from the floor, four of seven from the 3-point line — plus five rebounds, six assists, albeit with six turnovers, over 39 minutes. Forward Dylan Disu had 18 points and nine rebounds, with some big buckets, scoring 14 points during a Vandy run of 34-16 that put more drama into the evening than any folks not wearing orange and gold scattered about the O'Dome would have liked. 

UF did not convert a field over the final 3:20, while Vanderbilt was hitting five of six at one point, including three straight 3s. The Gators, though, helped stave things off by going 7-for-10 from the free-throw line during that 3:20. 

Florida, with five players whistled for two fouls in the first half, got a big lift from Lewis off the bench in the period. He entered the game after Mann got his second foul at the less than five minutes into the game and hit five of his next six shots and, ultimately, helped the Gators to an eight-point halftime lead. 

"I was scared to come back because of how good they were playing," Lewis said of his teammates, who put together two very impressive wins (over No. 6 Tennessee last week and Saturday at Georgia) without him. "I wanted to make sure that with the addition of me, we were actually adding and not subtracting, so I just tried to make sure I was solid. My health is good, my wind is great."
 
UF's health and wind, collectively, looked really good in the second half. The Gators came out of the locker room on a 10-2 run and began inching the lead out. When Castleton, who sat most of the first half in foul trouble, tipped in his own miss at the 9:54 mark UF had a 57-35 lead. 

The margin was still 19 with just over eight minutes left, and 15 with a little more than four to go, but Pippin, Disu and the Commodores just kept coming.

"Focus, just focus," White said. "Watching the scoreboard [thinking], 'We did it. We got it done.' No, we didn't! We did it for 30 minutes!"

Back-to-back-to-back 3s, two from guard Maxwell Evans and another by Disu, turned a 15-point Florida lead into a one-possession game inside two minutes. Appleby stopped the bleeding with two free throws, but Pippin bracketed consecutive buckets around a UF misfire and Vandy was down just 73-69 with 37.7 seconds, with the Commodores calling a timeout. 

They fouled Appleby before the ensuing inbound, saving time, but he made both free throws to push the lead back to six. After a Vandy turnover, Castleton made the first of two free throws at 33.1 to make it a seven-point game, but Lewis fouled Myles Stute on Castleton's miss, stopping the clock. Stute hit two free throws at the other end with 32.8 and the Commodores immediately fouled Lewis two seconds after the inbound. 

Lewis, 81 percent for his career at the line, missed both. 

Luckily for Florida, guard Jordan Wright missed a long 3-point attempt with 16 seconds left that would have cut the lead to two. Instead, Mann rebounded the shot, made both his free throws with 17.9 seconds left and a teachable moment was in the books. 

"We're up 20," Lewis said. "We can't blow that lead."

That'll likely be a point of emphasis Thursday and every day down the line. That and other elements of a win that was harder to come by than it should have been ... but a win, nonetheless. 

"Do you allow it to happen again or do you learn from it?" White said. "We have to learn how to handle success better."