ATHENS, Ga. — Dan Werner’s coaches and teammates consistently praise him for doing the little things — hustling, boxing out and making the extra pass.
Saturday, he tried to make one pass too many.
With Florida down by two, Werner passed up an open 16-footer and attempted to get the ball to a wide-open Vernon Macklin by the basket, but Georgia forward Albert Jackson deflected it out of bounds with 0.1 seconds to go.
The Gators (20-9, 9-5 Southeastern Conference) couldn’t do anything with the fraction of a second and fell 78-76 to the Bulldogs (13-14, 5-9 SEC) in Stegeman Coliseum.
“You tell [Werner] to keep his head up, but he should’ve shot that one,” freshman guard Kenny Boynton said. “At least we could’ve got a shot up to get a chance. But we didn’t even get a shot up.”
The play was designed for junior forward Chandler Parsons to come off two screens and get the ball on the wing. But the Bulldogs stuck to Parsons, and two Georgia defenders pressured him to make the pass to Werner.
“If Dan Werner makes the pass, and it gets through, and Vernon Macklin dunks the ball, you’re talking about how smart Dan Werner is today,” UF coach Billy Donovan said. “If Dan could have the play back, knowing what the result was, he would’ve shot the ball because it would’ve given us a chance.”
UF wasted its last chance and couldn’t hold off Georgia despite overcoming two huge deficits, a career-high 29 points from Parsons and a hot shooting night by Boynton.
Boynton, who has struggled to find his range the last few weeks, connected on 6 of 9 shots from beyond the arc and finished with 22 points.
Parsons and Boynton didn’t get much help, as the rest of the team combined to shoot 11 of 33. UF also lacked its usual tenacity on defense in the first half, when Georgia opened up a 15-point lead and shot 64.3 percent from the field.
“It’s very frustrating with everything on the line and where we want to get to as a team,” Parsons said of the Gators’ NCAA Tournament chances. “It’s disappointing to come out here and play like we did tonight. It feels like we let one slip away, and we can’t have that late in the season.”
Macklin had 10 points and six boards, but junior power forward Alex Tyus, usually one of the Gators’ top scoring options, was particularly ineffective against the physical Bulldogs frontcourt. Tyus finished with zero points and four rebounds in 21 minutes.
UF’s big men also struggled to contain UGA’s Trey Thompkins, who finished with 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting, seven rebounds and five assists.
“Give Georgia credit,” said Donovan, who was called for his first technical foul in the first half. “A lot of times after a game you can sit there and point out what you’ve done wrong, what you needed to do better or what went wrong on your end. Sometimes you don’t give enough credit to the other team.”
The Bulldogs opened up another 15-point lead with 9:45 left in the game, but the Gators worked their way back and cut it to two several times before their final attempt fell short.
