After a slow start, Florida looked like it had a chance to snag another big nonconference win Saturday night.
The Gators (17-8, 6-4 Southeastern Conference) fought back from a 16-point deficit but collapsed in the final 10 minutes of the game, falling 76-64 to Xavier (17-7, 8-2 Atlantic-10 Conference) in the O’Connell Center.
UF used a 13-6 run at the end of the first half to cut Xavier’s lead to seven and tied it up at 47 on an alley-oop from Erving Walker to Chandler Parsons with 13:05 remaining in the second half.
UF then took its first lead since the opening minutes of the game on junior center Vernon Macklin’s dunk with 12:16 to go.
After pulling ahead 52-50 on a free throw by guard Ray Shipman, the Gators made just four field goals in the final 10:48 and showed no signs of the intensity they had when making their comeback.
“When you get down that much, it’s tough to come back,” said junior forward Chandler Parsons, who finished with 15 points and eight rebounds. “We showed some toughness coming back, but we’ve really got to do the things coach talks to us about.”
Two areas in which UF needs immediate improvement are rebounding and free-throw shooting. Xavier outrebounded UF 44-36 and grabbed 19 boards on the offensive glass.
And the Gators struggled from the charity stripe, for the second straight game, hitting just 12 of 23 attempts on the heels of a 10-of-23 performance Wednesday against South Carolina.
“They killed us on the glass, and once again free throws came back to bite us,” Parsons said.
Xavier dominated inside, scoring 42 points in the paint and pushing the Gators around down low from the start of the game.
Senior forward Jason Love, who was averaging 11 points entering Saturday’s game, scored 14 in the first half and finished with 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds.
XU center Kenny Frease added 12 points in just 16 minutes, nearly doubling his previous season average of 5.8 points per game.
“I thought their frontcourt was as physical as any frontcourt that we’ve played against this year,” UF coach Billy Donovan said. “I don’t know how much more we could’ve done against their frontcourt.”
The more physical Musketeers pushed around the Gators’ frontcourt all game long, but Macklin managed to score 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting and grab 10 rebounds.
But UF’s top-three scorers — Walker, Kenny Boynton and Alex Tyus — shot a combined 10 of 32 from the field.
“Physically, they wanted it more,” Boynton said. “They drove to the basket, and when they missed, they got their own rebounds. They pushed the ball. They did a good job running their game plan. They kept with it.”
A victory against the Musketeers would have boosted the Gators’ NCAA Tournament resume, and the loss puts more pressure on UF to finish out its conference schedule strong.
But Donovan said his team is in no position to even think about the Tournament given its play Saturday night.
“If you’re not winning, you’re not going to get there,” Donovan said. “The fact that we didn’t win creates a situation where we really shouldn’t even be talking about that. If we win enough games, then we can start talking about that.”
WALKER HELD OUT OF STARTING LINEUP: Walker did not start for the first time all season after being late to a team meeting. Senior forward Dan Werner started in his place, his first appearance in the starting lineup since Parsons took his spot earlier this season.
It didn’t take long for Walker to see the floor, though, as he entered the game just 2:12 into the first half.
