All season, Billy Donovan has talked about making sure his team has at least a chance to win at the end games.
The Gators had their chance Sunday afternoon, but it bounced off the rim twice and fell to the hardwood.
Junior power forward Alex Tyus scored a game-high 18 points but missed a short jumper with five seconds left, and Florida (15-6, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) ended its four-game conference winning streak with a 61-60 loss to No. 14 Tennessee (16-4, 4-2 SEC) in Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn.
“We’ve been on both sides of it,” Donovan said. “We were on the other side of it when Chandler Parsons throws in a 75-footer and made a great shot last weekend against South Carolina.”
UF had a one-point lead with 25 seconds left, but Volunteers guard Scotty Hopson came out of a timeout and drained a long fadeaway jumper over Parsons.
That gave the Gators the ball with no timeouts and 17 seconds to go. Sophomore point guard Erving Walker passed out of a double team to Tyus, who spun to his right and put up a shot in traffic that fell off the iron and into the hands of Hopson.
Although he couldn’t make his last shot, Tyus was largely responsible for the game staying as close as it was. He shot 7 of 11 from the field and grabbed seven rebounds in 33 minutes.
If not for a late run by Parsons, Tyus would have been the only Gator to score in double figures.
Parsons, who finished the first half with seven points and seven rebounds, went quiet until the final minutes, when he scored seven straight for the Gators and put them ahead 60-59.
The junior forward went just 2 of 5 from the free-throw line in the final three minutes, but he also connected on a driving layup and a three-pointer from the top of the key with 30 seconds left.
Parsons led the team with eight rebounds but grabbed just one in the second half, when the Vols dominated on the glass.
UF led by as many as 10 points in the first half, holding UT to 36.4 percent shooting and taking a 20-14 rebound advantage, but the Vols outrebounded the Gators 27-12 after halftime.
Donovan said the blame for the rebounding disparity shouldn’t be placed on UF’s frontcourt. Instead, Donovan pointed to poor defense by Walker and freshman guard Kenny Boynton as part of the problem.
“Our guards got beat off the dribble way too much,” Donovan said. “When they were beat off the dribble, our big guys had to constantly shut off penetration, and doing that took them out of rebounding position.”
Walker and Boynton didn’t fare much better on the offensive end of the floor, shooting a combined 5 of 20 from the field and 1 of 11 from three-point range after scoring 21 points apiece against Georgia on Wednesday.
The starting backcourt also committed 10 turnovers and dished out only seven assists.
“Those guys are better than that,” Donovan said. “Erving seemed like he had a hard time keeping his footing tonight. He never really got into the flow of the game.
“The part for Kenny and for Erving wasn’t so much the off shooting night, because that’s going to happen. I didn’t think our backcourt did a great job taking care of the ball.”
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
