GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With less than four minutes to play, the Florida Gators made the long walk to their bench after Coach Mike White called a timeout. Vanderbilt had just hit its second of back-to-back 3-pointers to take what was a two-point deficit about 90 seconds earlier to an eight-point margin. At that moment, the Commodores were shooting (get this) 73 percent in the second half and had buried (get this, also) 15 of 29 from the arc. 

When the Gators stepped into the huddle they immediately began talking over and second-guessing one another. Nothing productive was being said or done. That was when Myreon Jones, before coaches ducked into the scrum, screamed at his teammates. 

"Stop the bitching!" Jones shouted. "All that matters now is getting stops!" 

According to witnesses, there was some more colorful language mixed in there, but that summed up the situation for a group that, in that moment, faced some dire circumstances on the Southeastern Conference road, both in the short-term and relative to their postseason possibilities. 

Indeed, the Gators needed stops, but they also needed points. A bunch of them in a hurry, actually. 

"After Myreon yelled at us, everybody just locked in," graduate guard Brandon McKissic said. 

More like lock-and-loaded in. Try 14 of the game's final 16 points, including the last nine in what became one of the program's most improbable comeback victories in years. It took a collection of stops and timely makes to get there, but eventually the difference-maker was graduate wing Phlandrous Fleming Jr.'s 3-pointer with 6.3 seconds left that led to an 82-78 victory and left the Commodores and Memorial Stadium crowd equally stunned as they were bummed. 

"I've been a part of couple crazy ones before," White said. "But to score that many that late, you just feel like you stole one because Vandy was fantastic."  Fleming's go-ahead bucket came after Florida (19-11, 9-8) forced a turnover under the Vanderbilt basket with 21.9 seconds to go. The Commodores (14-15, 6-11) had a chance to tie the game when SEC scoring leader Scottie Pippin Jr., who was spectacular in dropping a game-high 29 points, stepped to the free-throw line with 2.3 seconds and a chance to tie the game, but bounced the front end of a one-and-one. UF forward Colin Castleton grabbed the rebound, then hit two put-away free throws with 0.4 to go. 

"We are so resilient," Fleming said. 

Give 'em that. The Gators, playing a second straight game minus starting forward Anthony Duruji (ankle), have now won nine games this season after trailing by at least nine points. 

Once again, Castleton led his team with 19 points and seven rebounds, while Fleming, just three days removed from his virtuoso performance in his hometown of Athens, Ga., added 16 points, four rebounds, a season-high six assists, three steals and two blocks, one of which was monumental in the rally. Jones had 13 points and fifth-year senior point guard Tyree Appleby had 12. There were unsung heroes as well, with a couple of backups, wing Niels Lane and seldom-used forward Tuongthach Gatkek, combining for 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting over 33 minutes, plus some smothering defense down the stretch. Five different UF players scored points in the 14-2 blitz the covered the final 3:39; four different accounted for the game-ending 9-0 run.

"Sometimes you need some guys to step up and surprise you to win a game on the road in this league," White said.  

The anatomy of this comeback, as the fired-up Jones asserted, started on the defensive end. The Commodores had absolutely destroyed the Gators' defense for 36 minutes with sizzling shooting from the arc, as well as no fewer than five deflating late-shot clock makes. 

Vandy went 8-for-16 from deep in the first half, but still trailed by four at the break because UF shot 56 percent and made six of its 12 3s. The Gators had a six-point lead with 14 minutes to go when the Commodores took off on a run of 15 straight points that included three 3s and an old-time three-point play, to storm in front by nine with 10 minutes left. Florida managed to chip away and three times drew within a single possession, but then Pippin, who was 11-for-17 from the floor and 5-for-7 from distance, nailed a trey with his heels on the Vandy logo, which was followed by another from backup guard Trey Thomas, who made five of them on his way to 17 points. The Memorial crowd was into it, as well. 

That's when White called the time out and Jones called his teammates out.  Vanderbilt's final eight possessions netted just two points. They went down like this: turnover, turnover, missed shot, missed shot, elbow jumper from Pippin for a five-point lead with 45 seconds to go, then a miss, another turnover, and two missed free throws. 

"Every way that we could possibly lose the game," Commodores coach Jerry Stackhouse said. "I just feel like we're living in a nightmare right now. Because I ... felt like it should have been our game. We did enough. We had enough contributions to win the game. We just weren't smart enough, and then they executed down the stretch."

While the Commodores were flailing away, Castleton hit one of two free throws, Jones threw in a soft baseline floater and Appleby put back his own miss to make it a two-point game. Pippin's jumper pushed Vandy in front 78-73, but Castleton was fouled and knocked down a pair of free throws with 31.3 seconds left to draw his team back within a single possession. 

Defensively, the Gators set up in their full-court man to guard the inbound, with Lane on the ball, but the Commodores threw long over the coverage to a breaking Pippin, who caught the ball in stride and appeared on his way to an easy layup. Fleming, though, did not give up on the play, chased it down, launched himself and swatted the ball away cleanly. 

"I tried my hardest," Fleming said. "Ran as fast as I could." 

White called the play a "microcosm" of his team's comeback. It was. At the other end, Fleming got the ball back, got walled up by a couple Commodores, but threw a no-look pass to Gatkek, who put in a layup on the block to make the score 78-77 with 21.8 seconds left. White called another timeout and ordered the same full-court man, but this time switched up and put the rangy 6-foot-10 Gatkek on the ball. McKissic, meanwhile, was assigned to stick with Pippin. He stuck close enough, and offered just enough body on defense, to hold up Pippin coming off a screen to screw up forward Jordan Wright's timing on his inbound attempt. 

His bounce pass skipped out of bound on the left sideline in front of the UF bench. 

White subbed offense for defense and was rewarded for it. 

"Everybody in the gym knew the ball was going to Colin," Fleming said. "Just shows how unselfish he is." 

Castleton got the ball in the paint, felt the double-team come, and pitched a pass to Fleming, who was wide open at the free-throw extended out to the arc. The ball hit nothing but net with 6.3 seconds remaining. 

Vandy, out of a timeout, this time got the ball into Pippin, who sped into the front court on attack, but was fouled by McKissic with 2.3 to go. it wasn't the play White wanted, but it worked out. Pippin, a 74-percent free-throw shooter with a league-high 244 attempts this season, hit the back of the iron with his first attempt and Castleton was there to prevent any funny, second-chance business.  "They made some shots during the game that were just kind of, like, unbelievable, so tip your hat to them," McKissic said. "But tip your hat at us. We didn't get discouraged. It hurts to get scored on like that, but it shows our fight. They kept making shots, but we just kept coming back at them. They couldn't hold us off." 

The Gators stopped their bitching. Made stops and made shots. All when it mattered most. 

Maybe Jones should shout more often. And earlier.