COLUMBIA, S.C. — Last year at South Carolina, one missed free throw led to a heartbreaking loss for Florida. Wednesday night, trouble at the line brought about another tough defeat in Colonial Life Arena.
UF (17-7, 6-4 Southeastern Conference) shot 10 of 23 from the free-throw line and fell 77-71 to South Carolina (14-9, 5-4 SEC) on the Gamecocks’ home floor.
“If we focused at the free-throw line and made free throws, don’t turn the ball over and keep them off the offensive glass, those three things keep them out of the game,” said junior forward Chandler Parsons, whose missed free throw last year allowed the Gamecocks to get a full-court pass and fast-break layup as time expired.
After jumping out to a 6-4 lead in the opening two and a half minutes, South Carolina didn’t lead again until 8:18 remained in the game.
The Gators established a 28-20 lead with 6:38 to go in the first half thanks to some hot early shooting, but sophomore point guard Erving Walker missed two of three free throws that could have pushed the lead to 10.
Florida entered the game second in the SEC in free-throw percentage, shooting 71 percent on the year. But aside from Walker, who scored six of his team-high 20 points from the line, no Gator made more than one free throw despite a combined 13 attempts.
Freshman forward Erik Murphy shot 1 of 5 from the free-throw line.
Parsons finished with a double-double (13 points, 11 rebounds), but shot 1 of 2 from the line, as did junior power forward Alex Tyus (11 points, 15 rebounds, 1-of-4 free-throw shooting).
UF finished with 20 turnovers, compared to South Carolina’s six. The Gators wasted an otherwise-solid shooting night with their careless plays, as they finished 28 of 50 from the field.
“We shot such a high percentage, and we got layups and easy shots,” Donovan said. “But there were some times we really made some plays that weren’t there.”
The Gamecocks capitalized on the Gators’ plentiful mistakes, but South Carolina made some changes of its own that kept Florida off-balance.
While it was all Devan Downey all the time in UF’s 58-56 win against USC in Gainesville on Jan. 23, the senior guard was far more effective at getting his teammates involved Wednesday night.
Downey still scored a game-high 24 points, but nine of them came on late-game free throws when the Gators were fouling to lengthen the game.
“I don’t want to sit here and take credit that we did this great job stopping him, because I’m not so sure we did,” Donovan said. “I thought he was a little bit more patient and got some more guys involved.”
Forward Sam Muldrow scored 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting, giving the Gamecocks a presence inside to distract the defense from putting its full attention on Downey, but guard Brandis Raley-Ross proved to be a reliable option from the outside as well, finishing with 20 points.
It was the first time this year two Gamecocks scored more than 20 points in one game.
“Their other guys are Division-I players. They’re good players,” Parsons said. “We just wanted to control Downey and not let them get so many points.”
