A&M guard Hassan Diarra launches his game-winning 3-ball over contesting UF defender Kowacie Reeves that ousted the Gators in second-round play Thursday at the SEC Tournament.
Buzzer-Beating, Bubble-Bursting Heartache
Thursday, March 10, 2022 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
TAMPA, Fla. — A case can be made the Florida Gators swiped a few games with inspired comebacks, timely shots and clutch free throws during the 2021-22 season, and probably won a couple that just have easily could've fallen the other. Anyone remember Ohio State? On the road at Missouri and Vanderbilt? What about the big home upset of second-ranked Auburn?
Eventually, the basketball gods were destined to even the score.
Texas A&M backup guard Hassan Diarra nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 0.4 seconds left in overtime Thursday afternoon to give the seventh-seeded Aggies an 83-80 victory in second-round play of the Southeastern Conference Tournament that not only snuffed out a stirring late-game blitz by the ninth-seeded Gators, but vanished Florida's flickering hopes of a fifth straight NCAA Tournament berth in knifing fashion before a partisan crowd at Amalie Arena.
Diarra's 3, dropped in the face of a contesting and extended UF defender Kowacie Reeves, ruined a remarkable rally that saw the Gators (19-13) trail by 16 in the first half, by 13 with five minutes to go, by nine with a minute left, seven with 50 seconds to go in regulation, and by three with two minutes left in overtime.
"A high-level basketball game," Florida coach Mike White said afterward while wearing a face of dejection that was matched by the faces in his locker room, all of whom understood the program's run of four straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, the longest active streak in the league, was about to end. "I thought our guys showed incredible resiliency — as they have all season — to put ourselves in a position a couple of different times to steal it after being down big."
Instead, the Aggies (21-11) lived to play another day, with a date against top-seeded and fourth-ranked Auburn (27-4) and shot at a signature victory that could push A&M to the right side of the NCAA "bubble." It could just as easily been the Gators jockeying for that spot, but Diarra denied them and, instead, reduced UF to National Invitational Tournament fodder.
Diarra had 14 points off the bench, making three of four from deep. Forward Henry Coleman III, the transfer from Duke, led his team with 22 points and eight rebounds over 41 minutes, but the Aggies also shot 45.3 percent from the floor, made nine of 17 from the 3-point line and converted 26 of 36 free throws, with all of the attempts coming after halftime.
The game's biggest hero could easily have been Reeves, the freshman who came off the bench to score all of his career-high 21 points in the second half, including seven in the last 36.6 seconds of regulation on a pair of 3-pointers. UF also got 17 points from graduate guard Phlandrous Fleming Jr., who found some tough luck on his final attempt of the afternoon, plus 16 points and six rebounds over a game-high 41 minutes from senior forward Colin Castleton. Backup guard/forward Niels Lane hopped off the bench to post career highs of 16 points and nine rebounds. The off-the-bench performances from Reeves and Lane offset the lack of offensive production from starters Tyree Appleby, Anthony Duruji and Myreon Jones, who combined for four points and made just two of 15 shots.
All those numbers, however, meant nothing when Diarra let his rainbow game-winner fly.
Freshman Kowacie Reeves(14) hears it fromColin Castleton during his 21-point second-half outburst against the Aggies.
"Just another incredible game," said A&M coach Buzz Williams, whose team defeated UF 56-55 three weeks ago in College Station, Texas, after an Aggie was fouled attempting a 3-pointer (and made all three free throws) with 19 seconds left. "I'm not sure why it works out that way any time we play Florida, but it's just an invisible line between winning and losing when we play against Coach [White] and his team."
From the opening tip, it appeared as though the Gators would trip over that line and fall flat on their collective faces. The Aggies hit eight of their first 12 shots and 12 of their first 20 on the way to opening a 16-point lead that was cut to a dozen at the break, despite just 40-percent shooting by the Gators, including 1-for-9 from distance.
Along the way, Florida was not called for a single foul over the first 20 minutes against six whistled against A&M. That was a stunner. The fact the second half immediately turned into an instant foul fest was not, with both teams in the bonus within six minutes.
All told, 61 fouls were called and 46 free throws shot after intermission.
"We try not to really focus on what the refs have to do with the game," said Lane, who along with Reeves helped his offset a difficult outing from a trio of starters, as point guard Tyree Appleby, shooting guard Myreon Jones and forward Anthony Duruji combined for just four points on 2-for-15 shooting. "At the end of the day, the refs don't win or lose a game."
But they proved to be factors for both teams late.
Sophomore guard Niels Lane (44) was terrific on both ends of the floor, scoring 16 points, grabbing nine rebounds and joining Kowacie Reeves in putting up career-best numbers in their SEC Tournament debuts.
Diarra skied a ridiculous, 30-foot 3-pointer as the shot clock buzzed to give the Aggies a 62-49 lead with 5:39 to play. Just over four minutes later, though, the Gators were with seven, 65-58, and after two free throws from A&M's Wade Taylor IV, Fleming hit a 3-pointer with 59.6 to make it a six-point edge. Two-possession game.
"We showed more fight, played better defense and focused on getting stops," Castleton said of the lively Florida second-half performance -- UF scored 50 points over the final 15 minutes of regulation and OT -- that was the polar opposite of what the Gators rolled out in the first half. "If we had done that in the first half, obviously, it would have been a different story."
It was 63-58 after two Fleming free throws with 48 seconds to go when A&M turned the ball over on an inbounds play and, seven seconds later, Reeves hit a 3-pointer, was fouled and sank the free throw. One-point game.
Two more Taylor free throws were answered by another 3 from Reeves that tied the score at 70-all with 17.5 seconds to go, as a crowd that pretty much snored through the first 35 minutes was suddenly alive, well and loud. The Aggies' attempt at the game-winner bounced away as time expired in regulation.
In the overtime, the lead changed four times, with three ties in between. Florida led 80-78 after a pull-up jumper in the paint by Fleming with 48.6 seconds left. The ensuing Texas A&M possession appeared to end a turnover on the sidelines, with 39.1 seconds to go. The official closest to the play ruled Aggies guard Tyree Radford had caught a pass out of bounds, but the baseline official sprinted to the spot and, after huddling with the crew, changed the call to a foul on Fleming and awarded Radford two free throws.
He made both to tie the game.
With 17 seconds left, Fleming drifted into the paint for a jumper, but his shot — get this — got wedged between the rim and backboard for a dead-ball. The alternating possession arrow favored the Aggies with 16.2 seconds left.
Then came the Diarra dagger.
"To be honest, there was no doubt in my mind," Diarra said of his rainbow jumper.
Added Castleton: "When he shot it, he shot it with confidence, and I was, like, all right, I got to hit somebody. And then it looked good, so I was just like … yeah."
Yeah. That pretty much said it all.
In so many ways, the roller-coaster nature of the game mimicked what the Gators had gone through the last five months. White said as much afterward.
"A two-hour microcosm of the season," White said. "Ups, downs, a lack of execution for a couple of minutes, an incredible fight for eight minutes, a really productive timeout, a span where we would lose a little bit of focus or lose control of our emotions a little bit and start pouting about a certain call or what have you, and then leave everything we've got on the floor and come up just a little bit short. But we've had four or five where we got the other ending and we came out on the right side."
This time, it all caught up in devastating fashion.
