NASHVILLE, Fla. – They came back to the Music City this week intending to make amends for the flat and uninspired nature with which they ended the regulation season just a couple miles up the road five days earlier at Vanderbilt.
But through the first 20 minutes of Thursday night's Southeastern Tournament, the Florida Gators were basically reliving a repeat performance.
"We were a little dejected," UF coach Todd Golden said. "We fell into a little bit of a funk."
For the No. 6-seed Gators that funk included getting beaten up by the glass through the first half, a confounding number of missed free throws and a seven-point deficit against 11-seed Georgia nearly four minutes into the second period. Then things changed. UF guard Riley Kugelat the free-throw line late.
UF, one of the best rebounding teams in the country, started taking command of the glass, stiffened up a little more on the defensive end and began making enough free throws – take a bow, Riley Kugel – to flip the script, retake the lead and finish an 85-80 second-round victory at Bridgestone Arena.
Kugel, pressed into action after first-team All-SEC point guard Zyon Pullin fouled out, was perfect on six free throws over the final 15.1 seconds, with each of his three trips to the line coming after UGA had closed within a single possession. Kugel's last two went through with 5.3 seconds to go and moved the Gators (22-10) into Friday's quarterfinal round to face third-seeded and 19th-ranked Alabama (21-10), which had had one of the tournament's four double byes.
Junior guard Walter Clayton Jr. scored 15 of his game-high 22 points in the second half to lead five UF players into double-figure scoring. Grad-transfer forward Tyrese Samuel had 17 points and a career-high 15 rebounds, but also went 9-for-23 from the free-throw line and was responsible for 14 of his team's 18 misses on the way to a collective 23-for-41 night at the stripe (56.1 percent and right at Samuel's season average). Junior wing Will Richard had 17 points and seven rebounds. Zyon Pullin had 11 points, eight assists and five rebounds before his late-game DQ. Freshman forward Alex Condon had 10 points and three boards.
It wasn't easy, but this is March. Also known as "Survive & Advance" season.
"Incredibly proud of our team for this win," Golden said after the program's first victory in the tournament since 2021. "A lot of things didn't go our way, especially early. I thought our guys did a great job staying the course. We came out [in the second half] and settled ourselves down, even though Georgia made a good run."
A very good run, not unlike the two previous meetings this season – UF's 102-98 overtime win at Gainesville, followed by a hard-fought 88-82 win at Athens – between these two teams.
Florida trailed 37-34 at halftime after getting outworked on the glass, 23-19, and outscored 7-0 on second-chance points. Inexcusable for a team that came in ranked No. 4 nationally in offensive rebounding, but also eerily similar to what played out Saturday in the 79-78 regular-season ending loss at Vandy. The Gators were outworked there, too.
"Coach made it very clear we were losing on the rebounding front and, obviously, fouling a lot," Clayton said. "Defend without fouling was the big thing, getting back on the boards. I think we did a good job of that the second half."
Way better than the first.
Florida bombarded Georgia on the glass after intermission, 33-13, including 13-3 on the offensive end. That should have been good enough to build a comfy cushion, especially when shooting 45.5 percent from the floor, but that's where the free throws came into play. The Gators missed nine in the second half, while the Bulldogs (17-16) were shooting 47 percent from the floor and despite their own free-throw woes (16 of 27) slowly inched back after a 12-2 UF run helped the Gators take an eight-point lead, 66-58, with eight minutes left after a Clayton 3-pointer.
Tyrese Samuel (4) had his struggles at the free-throw line, but he played through contact all night and was a monster on the glass on his way to a career-high 15 rebounds.
Three minutes later, the game was tied at 68.
Georgia, playing without its leading scorer and 3-point shooter Jabril Abdur-Rahim (foot) managed to get the game going to its preferred pace, got some downhill buckets on hard drives from guards Noah Thomasson and Silas Demary Jr. (14 points each), hit eight 3s to just six for Florida and implemented a 2-3 zone the Gators had trouble navigating until their rebounding woke up.
"When [Florida is] playing well, they're one of the better teams in this league, which makes them one of the better teams in the country, when they're clicking on all cylinders," said UGA coach Mike White, who was hit with a technical foul midway through the second half. "We tried to muck it up and junk it up with some stuff we hadn't done defensively. I thought we did a pretty good job of it, but you look down and they still had 85 [points]."
Clayton broke the tie at 68 with a 3-pointer and Florida never trailed again. Only once did Georgia get within a point. The Bulldogs had a chance to retake the lead after Pullin was whistled for an offensive foul, his fifth, with 2:10 to go, leaving the Gators in something of a ball-handling bind.
On the Bulldogs' ensuing possession, Clayton stole a pass, took off in transition and finished a fastbreak with a layup, foul and free throw to go up by four with 1:55 left.
Walter Clayton Jr. (1) is helped off the deck by Will Richard(center) and Thomas Haugh (right) after his steal and 3-point play through contact late in the second half.
Georgia proceeded close within three points four times. The first time, the Bulldogs forced a miss, but Richard was there for the offensive rebound and putback.
The next three times the lead got cut to three, Kugel went 2-for-2 from the line; first with 15.1 seconds to go, then with 12.2, and lastly with 5.5 to seal the deal after the 53rd foul of the game was called. Kugel began the night at 64.4 percent from the line for the season and shot the 67th and 68th free throws of the game.
"Sometimes you take it for granted when guys make free throws late, but those are huge," Golden said in praising Kugel's clutch gene at the end. "Every single one of them kept the game from being a one-possession game late and the type of step-up effort that you need down the stretch to close out a game like tonight."
It wasn't easy, but pretty much fell in line with the two previous meetings.
"Beating a team three times in a row is really hard," said Samuel, who not only had his 11th double-double of the season (the most by a UF player since Al Horford in 2006-07), but had one in the second half alone (14 points, 10 boards). "We had to earn it."
And sweat it, too. That's part of what makes March so much fun. Stressful, also.
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