The game could have been a blowout.
In fact, with the way the Gators men’s basketball team ambled out of the opening tip of Saturday’s SEC/Big 12 Challenge, it should have been a blowout.
Florida only lost to TCU 55-50 in Fort Worth, Texas. But an “it could have been worse” performance does little for morale, especially for a team that suffered its eighth loss of the season in a game that was almost a come-from-behind win.
However, the Gators might emerge from future matchups with more than just moral victories if they capitalize off the bright spots that were evident in Saturday’s loss.
It starts with their young players.
Keyontae Johnson finished with just nine points, and he started the game just as dreadfully as the rest of the team. He committed two turnovers and had a shot blocked in the opening three minutes.
Once the 6-foot-5, 225-pound forward settled in, he showed why coach Mike White has trusted him to be the third freshman in the Gators’ starting lineup.
And his scoring total might have been higher if he hadn’t spent so much time on the bench in foul trouble.
Despite the four fouls, Johnson added a team-high eight-rebound performance to his streak of at least seven rebounds in each of his three starts. He grabbed nine against Texas A&M and seven against Georgia. Forward Dontay Bassett had five rebounds, and no one else on the team pulled in more than four against the Horned Frogs on Saturday.
Johnson also hit a couple big baskets that might have been enough to win the game had the Gators not been playing from so far behind the whole time.
One was a fast-break slam to cut the deficit to five points at the beginning of the second half. The other was an uncontested three-pointer to make it a three-point game with less than 10 seconds left to play. To set up the dunk, guard KeVaughn Allen came up with a steal off a double team by he and center Kevarrius Hayes and passed it to Johnson in the open court.
That lends itself to the second silver lining: The Gators’ defense showed it’s the reason the team hasn’t been out of many of its games this season until the final buzzer.
TCU’s comfortable 15-point cushion just midway through the first half shriveled to just a five-point advantage by the end of the second half for one reason:
Florida’s defense almost made up for its horrid 1-for-15 shooting to open the game.
Hayes led a Gators’ defense that held the Horned Frogs to just 27.3 percent shooting for the period.
The senior recorded two steals and two blocks before the second half reached its midway point. Four of his five blocks came after the break.
He and Jalen Hudson combined for seven blocks on the day.
And despite what it initially seemed, it was never an assured win for the Horned Frogs until guard Desmond Bane sealed it with a pair of free throws with three seconds left.
Follow Alanis Thames on Twitter @alanisthames and contact her at athames@alligator.org.
Forward Keyontae Johnson led the Gators in rebounds (8) in their loss to TCU on Saturday. He also scored nine points but was limited to 21 minutes due to foul trouble.
