More than two weeks ago against FSU, Dorian Finney-Smith stood at the line with 1.3 seconds remaining with a chance to win the game for the Gators. Patric Young leaned in to give his teammate words of encouragement, which were enough for Finney-Smith to sink his final free throw.
But on Tuesday night in Madison Square Garden, Scottie Wilbekin stood at the line. Alone.
With No. 16 Florida leading 77-75 against No. 15 Memphis with 17 seconds remaining in the game, the senior point guard stepped up to the charity stripe and tried to secure the victory for the Gators. However, Wilbekin’s fellow senior teammate, Young, had fouled out two seconds earlier and was forced to ride the bench with the game in the balance.
For Wilbekin, there was no pep talk or motivational speech. So on the front end of a one-and-one, he missed to bring his free-throw percentage below 50 percent on the season, but more importantly, to give the Tigers a shot to win.
“I really would have liked to have seen us be able to close out with some free throws,” coach Billy Donovan said. “Scottie being a point guard, he’s going to be in that situation an awful lot and he’s got to be able to knock those down in that situation.”
Unlike the buzzer-beater loss to UConn on Dec. 2, however, No. 16 Florida (8-2) came out on top Tuesday night as No. 15 Memphis (7-2) missed a potential game-tying layup with six seconds in the game to seal the Gators’ 77-75 victory.
Donovan said he was worried about Memphis guard Joe Jackson, who already had a team-high 17 points, quickly attacking the basket and catching his defense off guard on the last possession. But the Tigers called timeout at half court with 11 seconds remaining, which actually gave Donovan time to set up a final defensive stand.
“We went zone the last possession,” Donovan said. “I didn’t want to give up a three, but I was worried about – after the missed free throw – if they didn’t call timeout just driving it to the basket and us fouling. So we were able to get our defense set coming out of the timeout. We decided to go man.”
The scheme worked as Jackson failed to get a good look at the basket on his drive into the lane. Once Jackson’s shot clanged off the backboard, Finney-Smith got enough of his hand on the ball to knock it toward half court to expire the game clock.
Despite the top-20 win and the last-second stop, Donovan said he was not please with his team’s defense.
The Gators gave up a season-high 75 points against the Tigers as well as a season-high 47.4 field-goal percentage. And after forcing a season-high 24 turnovers last week against Kansas, Florida could only manage eight takeaways Tuesday night against Memphis.
“I didn’t think it was one of our better performances,” Donovan said. “I didn’t think we played a great game. We struggled in a lot of ways, in particular with defense. I thought that was a major setback for us defensively. We did not defend like we needed to and . . . hopefully we can learn from this.”
But the Gators saw some bright spots on offense as Casey Prather, who only made one field goal against the Jayhawks, got back into rhythm. The senior forward scored a game-high 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting. He also was a perfect 6 of 6 from the free throw line.
Although Young’s eight points pale in comparison to the scoring output by Prather, Donovan said his center provided the spark Florida needed before he fouled out with 19 seconds left.
Young grabbed a game-high eight rebounds, including three straight for the Gators in less than a minute during the second half.
“I thought his energy tonight was a monster,” Donovan said of his 6-foot-9 senior. “It’s the best I’ve seen him chase basketballs on the backboard. I was really, really proud of him tonight.”
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @jczupryn
Senior Patric Young comes down with a rebound over Memphis' Joe Jackson in Florida's 77-75 victory on Dec. 17. The Gators center finished with eight points and eight rebounds.
