ATLANTA — Standing at the free-throw line on the front end of a one-and-one with 23 seconds on the clock and Florida ahead of Kentucky 61-60, Scottie Wilbekin took three dribbles, bent down and released his shot.
No good.
When his free throw rimmed out, Dorian Finney-Smith pulled down the rebound and drew a foul on UK guard Andrew Harrison.
Now, it was Finney-Smith’s turn to try to pad UF’s lead with a one-and-one opportunity.
No good.
The two misses set up an unfavorable situation for Florida: It would have to get one more stop on a Kentucky team that thrives when driving to the rim.
It was a difficult task, but the seasoned Gators put their missed free throws behind them and showed their wisdom in a 61-60 victory Sunday against the No. 2 seed Wildcats in the Southeastern Conference Tournament final Sunday in the Georgia Dome.
Florida had learned too many lessons from the past to mishandle a late-game situation like this.
For the Gators, what went wrong during their loss to UConn in December — one that saw Shabazz Napier sink a jumper at the buzzer because of a defensive breakdown by UF — came to mind immediately in their huddle as Kentucky coach John Calipari called timeout with 14 seconds left.
“We just said everybody box your man out so they don’t hurt us on the second shot,” Wilbekin said.
“Don’t run to the rim like we did at UConn.”
The strategy worked.
Out of the timeout, Harrison wasted about 10 seconds of clock — what he admitted postgame was too much time — and looked to dish it off to Wildcats guard James Young at the right corner. Wilbekin guarded Harrison, while Michael Frazier II monitored Young.
Harrison passed it to Young, and both Wilbekin and Frazier converged on Young at the right elbow.
While all of this was happening, UF’s frontcourt boxed out in preparation for a field-goal attempt.
It never came.
Flustered, Young tripped, losing handle of the ball with about two seconds left.
“We did a great job of communicating,” Frazier said. “[Wilbekin] played good defense and then I was just able to stay with [Young] and he fell.”
With time dwindling and the ball up for grabs, Wilbekin and Harrison converged on it. As both were in a tussle on the ground, the buzzer rang and Florida had its first SEC Tournament title since 2007 signed, sealed and delivered.
“Last time we played Kentucky at our place, there was a loose ball that I didn’t dive on, and Will (Yeguete) and Casey (Prather) yelled at me for not diving on the ball, and I felt bad,” Wilbekin said. “So I thought about that, and there was no way I wasn’t going to dive on it this game.”
What helped a veteran Florida group edge past a young Kentucky team Sunday was experience. It has been a quality the Gators have displayed all season, and the final moments of the SEC Tournament embodied that.
“Where you could have come out of that timeout Kentucky called with 14 seconds, Dorian Finney-Smith hanging his head, Wilbekin hanging his head, ‘I missed the free throw, can’t believe it,’” coach Billy Donovan said.
“Now they’re not even thinking about the next possession. They’re worried about what happened at the free-throw line. They did that in their career. That was a problem for them.
“They have gotten better through those experiences. That’s where I think we have gotten better is we’re a better focused team moving past runs adversity, mistakes, challenges, things not going our way.”
Follow Landon Watnick on Twitter at @landonwatnick
The Southeastern Conference Tournament final pitted the Gators and Wildcats against one another for the third time in the 2013-2014 season.
With just more than 11 minutes on the clock and down by 15, the Wildcats proceeded to go on a 21-7 run to cut the Gators’ lead to 61-60 with 1:31 left in the game.
After Scottie Wilbekin and Dorian Finney-Smith each missed free throws with fewer than 30 seconds to go, UK had a chance to jump ahead and capture the SEC Tournament on the final possession.
However, when James Young had an open lane, he slipped and lost possession of the ball to secure Florida’s first SEC Tournament championship since 2007.
