NEW ORLEANS — With 9:26 left in regulation, Florida held an 11-point lead, staring at a trip to the Final Four and a return to national prominence.
But the Gators’ advantage quickly melted away, and when the buzzer sounded, they were looking not at a trip to Houston, but at a return home.
Second-seeded Florida (29-8) fought valiantly from start to finish, but that effort was not enough to keep its national championship dreams alive as the Gators fell 74-71 in overtime Saturday night to No. 8-seed Butler at New Orleans Arena.
“It hurts right now,” senior forward Chandler Parsons said. “I have a terrible feeling, and I almost feel sick to my stomach.”
The loss ended the careers of Parsons, Alex Tyus and Vernon Macklin in heartbreaking fashion, as UF came up just short of its ultimate goal.
The seniors wanted to go out as champions, but they will now leave with only an Elite Eight appearance on their NCAA Tournament résumés.
“What’s going to suck, more so than a loss, is that we’re never going to be able to play together as a team again,” junior guard Erving Walker said.
The Gators had every opportunity to seal the win, but Butler used a 17-6 run late in the second half to erase UF’s lead and force overtime.
That streak was capped by four straight points from Butler guard Shelvin Mack, who finished with a game-high 27.
“We had the game, but we just let it slip,” freshman guard Scottie Wilbekin said. “We kind of let our intensity drop down a level, and we weren’t coming up with all the loose balls and the rebounds that we should’ve.”
The Gators nearly secured the win at the end of regulation, but a three-pointer from Walker with one second remaining was off the mark, sending the game to overtime
Later, Walker had another chance to keep UF alive.
With the Gators down by three and 10 seconds remaining, the junior’s attempt once again came up short, sealing the win for Butler.
Walker’s misfires were uncharacteristic after a season filled with clutch plays.
“We couldn’t ask for nothing more,” sophomore guard Kenny Boynton said.
“Erving hits that shot, we win. We trust him. He has hit a lot of big shots, and it just didn’t fall.”
Florida’s shot selection was questionable at the end of the game, specifically Walker’s last two shots and Boynton’s three-point miss late in overtime.
With plenty of time on the shot clock during each possession, the Gators elected not to go inside despite their interior dominance throughout the rest of the game.
Senior Vernon Macklin was particularly effective, scoring a career-high 25 points on 11-of-14 shooting.
“I felt like we should’ve had better shot selection at the end of the game,” freshman center Patric Young said.
The Gators scored 36 points in the paint Saturday against a physical Butler squad that never brought a double team to slow down Florida’s post players.
Senior forward Alex Tyus finished with 14 points and felt he and Macklin should have been utilized more often down the stretch.
“I feel like our players just really weren’t looking for us,” Tyus said.
UF coach Billy Donovan said he wanted to get Macklin even more looks than his team-high 14 shots but couldn’t because of foul trouble.
Macklin played just 24 minutes, and Donovan said his 44.3 percent free-throw shooting made him a liability in late-game situations.
After Macklin took advantage of one-on-one opportunities early in the contest, the Bulldogs decided to make him earn his points at the stripe.
“They were just not going to allow him to do what he did in the first half,” Donovan said. “If he was going to get an angle, they were going to foul him.”
