NASHVILLE, Tenn. — John Egbunu dipped his shoulder and drove into the paint.
Then, in disbelief, he lifted both of his hands into the air, the right one wrapped in a white brace and the other pleading with the nearest official.
The referee called a charging foul, and with Florida trailing by just one point with three minutes left in the most important game of its season, the center fouled out.
Florida’s bench erupted.
“That wasn’t a foul!” coach Mike White yelled at the referee.
But after the No. 8-seed Gators’ 72-66 loss to No. 1-seed Texas A&M in Nashville on Friday, eliminating Florida in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals for the second-straight year, there was no yelling in Florida’s locker room.
“That’s the call they made,” Egbunu said softly, his head bent to his knees. “What killed us were a lot of turnovers. It wasn’t the call the ref made or anything like that.”
Three of Florida’s 12 turnovers came from the sophomore center, who played in a limited capacity after tearing a ligament in his right thumb in practice on Tuesday.
The Aggies capitalized, scoring 44 points in the paint, the most the Gators have given up in the last five seasons.
But aside from its inability to guard the post, Florida stifled the SEC’s hottest team for a majority of the game. The win marked Texas A&M’s seventh-straight victory, but it shot the lowest percentage (39.5) from the field since its Feb. 20 win against Kentucky.
“Very disappointing for us,” White said. “It's twice we've had a really good Texas A&M team in a position to potentially do something special, and they just made the right plays down the stretch.”
Junior Kasey Hill had a team-high 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including a four-minute stretch in the first half where the guard scored nine of UF’s 11 points to extend the Gators lead to three.
“I just played hard,” a despondent Hill said after the game. “And tried to help my team as much as I (could).”
Egbunu added 11 points and six rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench, and redshirt senior Dorian Finney-Smith had 11 points, a game-high nine rebounds and three blocks.
“Their key players made shots and key baskets,” Finney-Smith said of Texas A&M. “We just couldn't pull it through.”
With the loss, Florida remains in postseason limbo. The Gators likely needed to advance to the SEC Tournament semifinals to have a chance at an NCAA Tournament bid, but now UF’s most probable road leads to the National Invitation Tournament.
If Florida fails to make the NCAA Tournament, it will mark UF’s second straight year missing the cut after making it every year since 2009.
“I’m not gonna go there with what happens next. I don’t know,” White said. “Wherever we’re sent we’ll be excited to play, or we’ll find the right guys who are excited to play.”
Contact Ian Cohen at icohen@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @icohenb.
Florida's John Egbunu (15) reacts after drawing his fifth foul during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Florida in the Southeastern Conference tournament in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, March 11, 2016. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
