COLUMBIA, S.C. - Down 69-68 with 2 seconds left on the clock, South Carolina's Zam Fredrick took a length-of-the-court home-run pass from Mike Holmes and broke UF's heart.
Fredrick laid the ball in as the buzzer sounded to down No. 24 UF 70-69 Wednesday night at the Colonial Life Arena.
"I told Zam to go long," Holmes said.
UF (16-3, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) saw its 10-game winning streak come to an end.
"It's something you're not going to forget," guard Walter Hodge said. "We have to keep our heads up. Tomorrow's a new day."
It looked like Fredrick was going to cost the Gamecocks when he missed a foul shot with 5 seconds left that would have tied the game.
Chandler Parsons grabbed the rebound and was immediately fouled.
Moments later, Parsons (14 points) stood on the foul line, shooting the one-and-one with a chance to ice the game for the Gators.
But the sophomore's shot came off the front of the rim and fell right into the arms of Holmes.
"That's the first time Chandler Parsons, in a college game, has ever been lined up at the free-throw line like that," UF coach Billy Donovan said. "You're going to go through things like that."
Fredrick (15 points) slipped behind forward Dan Werner in the game's final seconds to send South Carolina (13-4, 2-2 SEC) to its biggest win of the season.
All Werner could do was watch as the Gators' perfect start to conference play slipped away.
"I thought we were matched up well," Donovan said. "It was just a great play. It worked out perfectly for them."
After the game, Nick Calathes (20 points) stood outside the UF locker room, disappointment replacing the smile he had worn only minutes earlier.
"It's not happy (in there)," Calathes said, gesturing to the door that hid his teammates. "It's not fun."
UF turned the ball over 18 times on the night and allowed the Gamecocks to hang around late. Freshman Erving Walker coughed the ball up five times.
Down 7 points with 2:27 to play, South Carolina's Devan Downey (20 points) scored 7 points to cut the UF lead to 69-67 with 27 seconds left.
"They made bigger plays at the end," Calathes said.
Donovan hopes the loss can serve as a rallying point for his young team.
"You really find out how much you care when you go through something like this," Donovan said. "Hopefully this can make us a tougher team."
The UF frontcourt that had shown so much improvement in recent weeks took a step back against South Carolina.
None of the Gators' big men scored or rebounded in double digits, and they failed to convert on easy baskets late in the game.
"We missed some plays around the basket," Donovan said. "(Alex) Tyus had some looks inside that he should have finished."
UF will now have three days off before it makes the trip to Vanderbilt on Sunday for a nationally televised game.
"You can never be good unless you go through some serious heartache," Donovan said.
