A breakout game for Dontay Bassett couldn’t secure a Florida win in the Battle 4 Atlantis quarterfinals.
The sophomore forward scored 14 points while shooting 6-for-8 and brought in four rebounds. That was enough to lead the team in scoring, but the Gators fell to Oklahoma 65-60 in a game they only led for 3:35.
Florida (2-2) trailed the Sooners by nine with just under four minutes to play, but a pair of threes from guards Noah Locke and KeVaughn Allen put the Gators within three with 14 seconds to play. Allen tried for a layup, which he missed. The Sooners (4-0) recovered the rebound to seal the win.
Poor shooting behind the free-throw line ultimately cost the Gators what could have been a resume-boosting win. They were only 27 percent on free throws and left eight points at the line in a game that was decided by five.
The game was back-and-forth for most of the first half, but a 12-2 run by Oklahoma gave it an 11-point lead — the largest of the day — with 7:15 to play before the break. The Gators responded with a run of their own, narrowing the Sooner lead to 32-30 at the break.
The second half looked promising for UF at the start, as it jumped out to a 37-36 lead. This would be the last Florida lead of the afternoon.
UF had no answer for OU guard Christian James. The senior shot 6-of-15 and scored 18 points with seven rebounds. He was one of three Sooners to reach double figures scoring, along with Rashard Odomes and Jamuni McNeace, who each scored 11.
Both teams shot 39 percent from the field, and the Gators out-shot Oklahoma from behind the arc 39 percent to 22 percent. It wasn’t an overtly impressive mark, but it would explain how Florida had a chance to win at the end despite losing the battle for the boards by 14 rebounds.
Florida now looks forward to a Thanksgiving Day loser’s bracket matchup against the loser of this afternoon’s game between Stanford and No. 25 Wisconsin. The Gators will take on either the Badgers or the Cardinal tomorrow night at 7 from Imperial Arena in the Bahamas.
Follow Tyler Nettuno on Twitter @TylerNettuno or contact him at tnettuno@alligator.org.
Senior KeVaughn Allen scored 10 points against Oklahoma, but he went 0-of-2 from the free-throw line and missed a critical layup in the game's final seconds of the Gators' 65-60 defeat.
