It rained all night long.
The weather outside the O’Connell Center couldn’t have been drier, but the inside was drenched with three-pointers as Florida made 18 of them to take down Texas A&M 81-72.
Both the Gators and the Aggies took a minute to settle into Tuesday night’s game, but once they did, the deep shots started falling from both ends of the floor.
Senior KeVaughn Allen initiated the myriad with his first three-pointer just three minutes into the game. And it started a ripple on the next three possessions with makes from freshman Andrew Nembhard, Allen, again, and freshman Noah Locke.
Before Tuesday, Florida (11-7, 3-3 SEC) was the only team in the nation without a 20-point scorer this season. That changed with Allen’s 31-point performance and Locke’s 27-point night.
Locke and Nembhard were two of three freshmen in coach Mike White’s starting lineup for the second-straight contest.
Forward Keyontae Johnson made his second career start in the place of forward Keith Stone, who suffered a season-ending ACL injury against Georgia.
Johnson finished with just two points but grabbed nine rebounds.
But after draining the four consecutive shots early on, Florida cooled off.
The Aggies didn’t.
Texas A&M (7-10, 1-5 SEC) had an answer to every one of Florida’s three-point shots and continued to shoot well from deep when the Gators started to miss.
UF took 22 shots from beyond the arc in the first half and made just seven of them. The Aggies also made seven threes during that span, but it only took them 11 shots to do so.
But Allen kept the Gators afloat when the others’ shots weren’t falling in the first half, going 4 for 5 from deep with 14 first-half points.
With the Aggies shooting 55 percent, Florida trailed by 13 at the half.
But the Gators dominated the three-point line from there.
Locke got it started, draining three straight from downtown to open the half, cutting the deficit to seven. Allen came up with a steal and another triple to cut it to four. And the Gators used momentum to swipe their first lead since early in the first half, a slim 54-53 advantage midway through the period.
But neither Locke nor Allen was finished.
The two combined for 10 triples in the second half, accounting for 37 of Florida’s 48 points.
Allen finished with eight threes on the night, Locke with seven.
“I was just shooting with confidence, just shooting with confidence,” Locke said of his career-high night. “Shooting the way I shoot, and everything was falling for me.”
Suddenly, it was Texas A&M that struggled with the deep ball, going 2-for-11 in the second half.
Florida stormed back from its double-digit deficit and shot as well as it has all season. The Gators accomplished something they’ve rarely done so far: They held onto their lead and closed out the game.
Much of White’s focus following the victory was on what still needs to improve, and he noted he’d like to see much more consistency moving forward.
“Made lots of jump shots,” White said. “I wish we would every night.”
Follow Alanis Thames on Twitter @alanisthames and contact her at athames@alligator.org.
Florida guard KeVaughn Allen became the first Gator this season to eclipse 20 points. He was 10 of 16 on the night, which included 8 of 10 from three, to drop a game-high 31 points against Texas A&M.
