Up by one with 12.7 seconds to go, Florida faced an opportunity to bring its two-game losing streak to an end Tuesday night. All the Gators needed was one stop on defense.
South Alabama guard Tim Williams drove into the lane and ran into Chandler Parsons, forcing a bad shot that bounced off the rim. But redshirt freshman DeAndre Hersey stepped up for the Jaguars, tipping the ball back in to give his team a one-point edge with 1.8 seconds remaining.
“We drew it up that we were going to miss it and Hersey was going to get it and put it in,” South Alabama coach Ronnie Arrow joked after the game. “Actually, we drew it up for Tim, and he got the shot. We told everybody to go to the board and Hersey listened.”
As point guard Erving Walker’s desperate halfcourt heave fell to the floor and the buzzer sounded, unranked South Alabama (9-4) rushed the O’Connell Center floor, celebrating wildly and Gator chomping after handing Florida a 67-66 defeat – the team’s first home loss in December since 2004.
“We’ve just got to take ownership as a team,” Parsons said. “Yeah, we’ve done a good job so far, but we’re going home for Christmas 8-3, and that’s not good enough.”
After starting the season 8-0, the No. 18 Gators have dropped three straight over the last two weeks, with the last two coming against unranked opponents.
“We played with a chip on our shoulder, and now I guess we got complacent,” freshman guard Kenny Boynton said. “The rankings got to our heads, and we’re just not playing defense anymore like we first started out.”
Although the team’s defense has noticeably slipped from its early season form, UF coach Billy Donovan said the 3-point line was the difference in the game Tuesday night.
The Gators were the top-ranked team in the country at defending the 3 before their loss to Richmond on Saturday, but they have given up seven in each of the last two contests.
The Jaguars shot 64 percent from beyond the arc, while the Gators shot a miserable 14 percent.
“At one point during a timeout, I said, ‘Enough with the 3s. Enough. They’re not going in. It’s enough. Take it at the end of the shot clock right now, but we’re like 2 for 20 right now. Enough,” Donovan said. “We got to get the ball inside.”
The strategy was effective when UF was getting the ball down low, as power forward Alex Tyus led the team with 16 points and center Vernon Macklin added 13. But the Gators couldn’t outrebound their outsized opponent – both teams finished with 39 – and were unable to get anything going from outside.
UF’s four best 3-point shooters – Walker, Boynton, Parsons and Dan Werner – combined to shoot 3 of 22 from beyond the arc.
“I don’t care who you’re playing against, it’s difficult to win when you shoot the ball like that,” Donovan said.
Walker, Boynton, Parsons and Werner are a combined 6 for 36 from 3-point range in the last two games – a statistic they will need to improve when the Gators get their next chance to stop their three-game skid against American on Dec. 28.
“There’s got to be a tradeoff. If you’re going to take 3s, you’ve got to make some of them,” Donovan said. “It’s got to be a tradeoff. I think those four guys have got to deliver for us.”
