Vandy Takes It To, Then From Gators

Saturday, March 9

Nashville, TN

4:30 PM

Florida Gators

21-10,11-7SEC

Vanderbilt

9-22,4-14SEC

Florida

Vanderbilt

UF forward Thomas Haugh tries to stop a driving Tyrin Lawrence during Saturday's loss at Vanderbilt.

Vandy Takes It To, Then From Gators

Saturday, March 9, 2024 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

NASHVILLE, Fla. – With the clock ticking away inside 30 seconds and visiting Florida clinging to a three-point lead, all the Gators needed was one stop. To be specific, they needed a stop and a defensive rebound.

The former was something the Gators did well enough to win on the road Saturday against Vanderbilt. The latter was something they did poor enough to lose, which was exactly what happened in the waning moments at Memorial Gym.

First, glass-crashing Commodores forward JaQualon Roberts was fouled while positioning for an offensive rebound that led to two free throws with 24 seconds to go. Then, Vandy guard Tyrin Lawrence stole Walter Clayton Jr.'s ensuing inbound pass and seconds later drove to the game-winning layup in the Commodores' 79-78 upset of the Gators in the Southeastern Conference regular-season finale for both teams.

UF had one more possession to retake the lead. That one, also, ended in a turnover as time expired.

"Obviously, you've got to do a better job of taking care of the ball in that situation," Florida coach Todd Golden said of the late-game carelessness.

No question, but the problems for the Gators (21-10, 11-7) in this game were multiple. Shooting the ball, oddly, was not among them. Though it struggled to knock down 3-pointers (just 5 of 17 for the game), UF hit 51.7 percent for the game, its second-highest in league play this season. The Gators went 13 of 14 from the free-throw line. And they also guarded, limiting the Commodores (9-22, 4-14) to just 35.5 percent for the game and led by as many as 12 in the first half, 10 in the second and eight with just over five minutes remaining.

It was everything else that went wrong, including two areas – rebounding and ball security – that have been reliable staples this season in the UF program's return to NCAA Tournament at-large status.

Before playing in that coveted event, however, the Gators will have to gather themselves in time for a trip back to the Music City next week and the SEC Tournament, which for them will begin Thursday night with a second-round date against either Georgia or Missouri, which play the night before.

A performance in that one even remotely like this one won't do.

"We came out lackadaisical. We weren't ready to play and they were just tougher than us," grad-transfer forward Tyrese Samuel said. "It was their last home game, they really had nothing to lose and we came in here like a team that had just come off a big win [Tuesday against 16th-ranked Alabama]. Like we thought we were just going to come in here and beat a good SEC team. The SEC is the best conference in America. Anybody can beat anybody. It showed today."

Vanderbilt, a team resting next to last in the SEC standings (and in the bottom third nationally in rebounding), not only won the rebounding battle, 41-35, but positively pulverized the Gators on the offensive end, 20-6, leading to 21 second-chance points, including those two big free throws at the end. Sophomore forward Ven-Allen Lubin, the 6-foot-8 Notre Dame transfer by way of Orlando Christian Prep, led the Commodores by matching his career-high of 25 points, going 7-for-7 from the free-throw line, plus 11 rebounds. Lawrence, the only other Vandy player in double-figure scoring, had 14 points, all of them in the second half, while Roberts had seven points and seven rebounds, with all his boards (amazingly) on the offensive end.

And then there were the turnovers. The Gators coughed up16 of them, leading to 19 points, several of them coming at the free-throw line, where the Commodores went 19 of 20 (95.0 percent).

Point guard Zyon Pullin led the Gators with 20 points, five rebounds, eight assists and just one turnover over 37 minutes.

All the same, Florida had a chance to win the game after Lawrence's steal and go-ahead basket. With the seconds ticking away, the Gators had trouble getting organized and wasted some precious seconds before calling a timeout with :04 on the clock. When the action resumed, Clayton was shoveled a sideline-out-of-bound pass with a head of steam going down the left side of the lane. His dribble, though, nicked his foot and bounced toward the baseline, heading out of bounds. Clayton managed to grab the ball, but his desperation pass back into play came as time expired.

That was that.

Golden was brief with post-game remarks. Less than three minutes, in fact, and basically summed up his thoughts by reading off the box score.

"The things that don't require talent, I thought they out-played us," Golden said. "They had 20 offensive rebounds, we had six. We had 16 turnovers, they had eight. That's the game right there. We held them to 35 percent from the field, we shot 51. But it was a numbers game – they had 76 field goal attempts, we had 58. They had 20 free throw attempts, we had 14. Really impossible to go on the road and to win a game like that when you let your opponent out-shoots you 18 times from the field and six times from the foul line. It's just not a good recipe for success."

In a mostly empty gym, the game lacked energy from the tip, but the Gators managed to build a 12-point lead, at 39-27, late in the first half by limiting the Commodores to just 26.5 from the floor. Vandy, though, scored the last five points of the period to go to the locker room down just seven.

"It started in the second half," said Pullin, who was terrific with a line score of 20 points, five rebounds, eight assists and just one turnover over 37-plus minutes. "We came out a little slow, they made a few plays and got a little confidence. And then the obvious: the rebounds and the second-chance. We gave up way too much."

Vandy shot 43 percent after the break, grabbed 12 of its offensive rebounds and tallied 14 of its second-chance points, with both Lubin and Lawrence accounting for 14 points in the half.

"Our guys attention to detail and playing together was awesome to watch," Commodores coach Jerry Stackhouse said.

Even so, UF led 67-59 inside six minutes and 69-62 inside five when Vandy scored six unanswered to make it a one-point game with less than three remaining.

Pullin's two free throws with 35 seconds left had the Gators up 78-75. A stop and a rebound would have sealed an 11th win in the last 14 games to wrap the regular season. It all looked right when Lubin bounced a 3-pointer from the top of the key, but Samuel, in easily grabbing the rebound, was called for pushing off on Roberts, who did a magnificent sales job on the play in flopping out of bounds.

He did an equally good job making two clutch free throws and then everything fell apart for the visitors, with Clayton's two turnovers over the final 15 seconds.

"They just played harder than us. They were the tougher team," Pullin said. "We have to watch film, learn from it, correct it, be sharper on our principles and move on."