With 9:33 remaining in the second half, Tennessee Volunteers guard Dalton Knecht softly jabbed toward the far baseline and shot a 3-pointer over Florida Gators men’s basketball guard Will Richard. It barely knicked the rim and fell in the basket, and Knect stuck his tongue out before Gators head coach Todd Golden called a timeout.
It increased the Volunteers' lead to 70-51, ignited the rowdy Knoxville crowd and put the game out of reach.
Florida (11-6, 1-3 SEC) was crushed by Tennessee (13-4, 3-1 SEC) Tuesday in the Gators' second 15-plus point loss in SEC play.
Florida’s defense had no answer for the combination of Knecht and forward Jonas Aidoo all game, as the duo combined for 58 points. Knecht finished the contest with a career-high 39 points on 13-of-23 shooting, while Aidoo recorded 19 points.
Florida shot poorly all game against the Vols, shooting just 29.4% from the field and making just five 3-pointers on the night on 22 attempts.
From the start, the Gators struggled to get by a stifling Tennessee defense. Florida rarely earned an easy shot and often took most of the shot clock to do so. And if they did find themselves converting an open look, the Volunteers would rush down the court and take only seconds off of the shot clock before seeing the ball go through the net.
With 7:05 remaining in the first half, Knecht threw down a dunk to extend the Vols lead to 24-12. From there, the guard scored Tennessee’s next 14 points over four minutes to increase Florida’s deficit to 36-19, the largest of the half.
With 10 seconds left in the half, it looked as though the Volunteers would take a 16-point lead into halftime, but junior guard Zyon Pullin easily scored a layup and sophomore guard Kugel stole the ball five seconds later and scored another layup to cut Florida’s deficit to 44-32.
Head coach Todd Goden’s squad went into the halftime locker room with momentum, looking for a possibility of a second half push to upset the No. 6-ranked team in the country.
Though, the Gators needed to put the first half performance behind them, shooting just 29.4% on 10-for-34 from the field in the half and 25% from beyond the arc. Tennessee was consistent and solid from the field, shooting 60%, making 18-of-30 shots in the half.
However, right out of halftime, it was the same story for Florida. Difficulty getting open shots and having a tough time handling Tennessee’s pace doomed the squad’s performance.
Tennessee guard Zakai Ziegler nailed a 3-pointer to boost the Vols lead to 57-37 at the 15:46 mark in the second half.
Though, Florida showed fight, clawing back to cut the Tennessee lead to 10 points after a layup from junior guard Walter Clayton Jr.
But from there, it was all Tennessee. The Volunteers went on a 12-0 run to increase their lead to 73-51. Two Clayton Jr. free throws halted a five-minute scoring drought for Florida.
The Gators failed to get any closer, as Knecht helped close out the Gators with continuous scoring in the paint and behind the 3-point line.
Again, UF was dominated on the road in SEC play, suffering their third conference loss of the season. Clayton Jr. led all Gators scorers with 16 points, and sophomore guard Riley Kugel followed with 12 points.
Next, Florida will travel to Columbia, Missouri, to face the Missouri Tigers Saturday at 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.
