LEXINGTON, Ky. — In the Gators’ two previous losses against top-three teams, outside shooting was their saving grace from an embarrassing final margin.
The 11 threes Florida made at No. 3 Ohio State back in mid-November tapered a 16-point deficit to seven. Less than a month later, in a four-point loss to No. 2 Syracuse, nine UF 3-pointers helped the Gators keep within striking distance.
But Tuesday night at Rupp Arena, the catalyst for transforming a seemingly insurmountable lead into a tight game never came as No. 8 Florida (19-5, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) fell to top-ranked Kentucky (24-1, 10-0 SEC) by 20 points.
The Gators shot a season-low 22.2 percent from three in the 78-58 loss and followed a 2-of-9 performance in the opening half with a 4-for-18 dry spell in the second, allowing the crowd of 24,389 to begin its march toward the exits with more than four minutes left.
“That’s just part of their coaching; that was great coaching and great scouting,” guard Brad Beal said.
“They know that we’re a 3-point shooting team and they took our best strength away from us.”
Beal, a freshman, scored 14 points for Florida on 1-of-7 shooting from 3-point range. Only two other Gators — Erik Murphy and Kenny Boynton, who led UF with 18 points — made a shot from behind the arc.
Kentucky, meanwhile, had three players nail more than two threes.
Along with the bottomless supply of lob dunks from 16-point scorer Anthony Davis and transition points courtesy of fellow freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who chipped in 13, the talented Wildcats stretched the Gators’ defense even further with nine 3-pointers on 15 attempts.
“Our defense was terrible, so really it was an overall, all-around, totally bad game,” Beal said. “All credit goes out to them, so we just have to come out next game and be ready and prepare.”
The 60-percent shooting performance was a season-high for Kentucky — 10 percent higher than its previous best. The last time the Wildcats made 50 percent of their shots from deep was in late December against Lamar.
A pair of 3-pointers late in the first half by Doron Lamb, who led UK with 18 points, typified Florida’s lax defense, according to UF coach Billy Donovan.
“The two threes at the end were probably ones that we could have done a little bit better job,” Donovan said.
“One was in transition and (Will) Yeguete got caught on Lamb … and then again, I thought he got a little bit too far on the wing and they kicked it to him and he knocked down the second one.”
The six points by Lamb pushed the Wildcats’ halftime lead to 12. Florida opened the second half with a 4-0 run, but Kentucky answered with an 11-0 run of its own fueled by 3-pointers from point guard Marquis Teague and Darius Miller.
Despite 13 second-half points by Boynton on three 3-pointers, a layup and two free throws, the Gators never again closed the gap to less than 16.
“We’ve been in positions a lot this year where we’ve lost,” Boynton said. “We responded well previously. You’ve got to come out and be excited. We’ve got Tennessee next, and we’ve got to come out and practice hard.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Florida freshman Brad Beal (left) credited Kentucky for shutting down the Gators’ strength on offense — 3-point shooting. UF made just 6 of 27 attempts from three in the 78-58 loss.
