NASHVILLE, Tenn. — With the exception of a couple outliers, the Florida Gators mostly showed a lot of fight during the 2022-23 season, especially when they were severely undermanned minus 6-foot-11, three-time All-Southeastern Conference forward Colin Castleton. UF lost arguably the most offensively skilled "big" and best low-post defender in the league three weeks ago to a broken hand, but managed to cobble together enough resistance on the block to stick around in most games. Sometimes it was enough. Sometimes it wasn't. 

Thursday was one of those "wasn'ts," but came oh so close to being a "was."

Mississippi State forward Tolu Smith, who terrorized the Gators in the paint all afternoon on his way to 28 points and 12 rebounds, put in a go-ahead layup with 4.8 seconds left that proved the difference in the desperate Bulldogs' 68-67 victory in second-round play of the SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena. The win was huge for MSU (21-11), which was teetering on the NCAA Tournament bubble and probably needed one more win to push itself into the field of 68. 

They did so at the Gators' expense.

"This is a team we're playing today in a life-or-death game to get in the NCAA Tournament," UF coach Todd Golden said of an opponent that came in having won eight of the previous 10 to get itself in the tourney conversation. "We gave them all they wanted. Had a one-point lead with 10 seconds to go."

For the Gators (16-16) it came down to needing one stop, as Smith's play came after UF — which trailed by 14 in the first half, 10 to start the second and by seven in the extra period — ripped off a ridiculously 8-1 run over 90 seconds, forcing a pair of key turnovers that were converted into points, including a layup by backup wing Niels Lane with 11.8 seconds to go for the lead. 

Bulldogs point guard Dashawn Davis dribbled into the half court, took a second to probe the defense, then went hard into the paint. A shot was there, if he wanted it. Instead, Davis kicked the ball in deeper to Smith, where the 6-11, 245-pounder had been camped all 35 of his minutes. His layup for the lead was uncontested, with Golden calling a timeout inside five seconds.  There wasn't much time for the Gators to work with. Shooting guard Myreon Jones, who hit two late-regulation 3s back-to-back to send the game into overtime, inbounded to point guard Kyle Lofton, who immediately shoveled a pass back to Jones. He speed-dribbled twice into the half court and let fly an open 3 from about 27 feet that rimmed off the left side and sent the Bulldogs into the tournament quarterfinals to face top-seed, regular-season SEC champion and second-ranked Alabama (26-5). 

Jones was also just off on a 3-pointer that would have won the game at the buzzer of regulation. 

"With four seconds the message is you have either two dribbles and one pass or three dribbles and a shot, and then you got to get that thing up," Golden said. "You would like a higher percentage shot only being down one, but you have to get one up, period. Got to live with it a little bit."

And live with the result, unfortunately, which is a weekend of waiting and watching their fellow SEC brothers and others around the country play for championships and NCAA seeding, while waiting for a late Sunday night — well after the prime tourney selection shows — to hear their expected National Invitational Tournament fate. 

Smith hit nine of 19 shots, went 10-for-17 from the free-throw line with half of his dozen rebounds coming on the offensive end in out-muscling whichever big not named Castleton (Jason Jitoboh, Aleks Szymczyk, Alex Fudge) UF sent his way. 

"The key was not letting him get deep paint touches," said Florida freshman guard Riley Kugel, who led his team with 14 points, but was off most of afternoon on his way to going four of 13 and two of eight from distance. "He kind of got a lot of that, that's really it." 

The Gators were pretty much worked over again on the glass — it was a problem at times even with Castleton and was exasperated by his season-ending injury — as the Bulldogs won the battle of the boards 46-35, including 18-9 on the offensive end leading to 14 second-chance points. 

Too many times Florida played solid first-possession defense, only to surrender a second or third possession that ended with a MSU bucket or free throws. That was the biggest reason the Gators fell behind by 14 in the first half; that and missing 13 of 14 shots over one stretch to dig a hole that had the Bulldogs up 36-22 with just over a minute to play in the period. UF, though, scored the last two baskets of the period and trailed by just 10 at the break. 

The second half was different. From the start. 

"They started better than we did," Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said. 

Finished better, too. In regulation, that is.  A 13-2 Florida run started with a Jones floater on the baseline at the 17:18 mark. It ended almost three minutes later when Szymczyk nailed a 3-pointer at 14:28 for UF's first lead since 2-0.  From there, it was a lot of back and forth with Mississippi State, after a tying 3 by Jones with 6:22 left, running off six straight points to a 57-51 lead after a layup by Smith with 1:50 left. 

Then came a Jones 3 with 1:29 to play, on a rare second-chance opportunity, that cut the margin in half. Then another with 36.3 to go. He couldn't drop a third straight at the regulation horn after a clutch defensive stop. 

The Bulldogs scored the first five points of overtime, starting with a 3-point play by Smith, and led 66-59 inside two minutes when a Fudge tip-in and back-to-back turnovers by MSU (after a single Bulldogs free throw) gave way to a 3 from Kugel, two free throws from Kugel, then a steal by Kugel and layup from Lane to put the Gators in position to steal one a victory.

The layup by Smith was Mississippi State's 37th and 38th points in the paint.  

"Two chances at the end of regulation, then overtime, to win that game. Came up a little short," Golden said. "Considering what we've gone through in terms of Colin's injury, having to reinvent ourselves later in the season, I'm incredibly proud of the strides these guys have made and getting back to this level where we're competitive."

Now they get to see if they can maintain that level of competitiveness. In that other tournament.