NEW ORLEANS— With 9:26 left in regulation, the Gators held an
11-point lead and were staring at a trip to Houston.
But when the final buzzer sounded, it was Butler (27-9) who secured
a second-straight appearance in the Final Four.
Second-seeded Florida (29-8) fought valiantly from start to finish,
but that effort was not enough to keep national championship dreams
alive, as the Gators fell to the No. 8 seeded Bulldogs 74-71 in
overtime at the New Orleans Arena.
“It hurts right now,” senior forward Chandler Parsons said. “I have
a terrible feeling, and I almost feel sick to my stomach.”
The loss ended the careers of Parsons, Alex Tyus and Vernon Macklin
in heartbreaking fashion, as UF came up just short of its ultimate
goal.
The seniors had yearned to go out as champions, but now will leave
with only an Elite Eight appearance on their NCAA Tournament
resumes.
“What’s going to suck more so than a loss is that we’re never going
to be able to play together as a team again,” junior guard Erving
Walker said.
The Gators had every opportunity to seal the win, but Butler used a
17-6 run over 6:23 late in the second half to erase UF’s lead and
force overtime.
That streak was capped by four straight points from Butler’s
Shelvin Mack, who finished with a game-high 27.
“We had the game, but we just let it slip,” freshman Scottie
Wilbekin said. “We kind of let our intensity drop down a level, and
we weren’t coming up with all the loose balls and the rebounds that
we should’ve.”
The Gators nearly secured the win at the end of regulation, but a
three-pointer from Erving Walker with one second remaining was off
the mark.
That sent the game to overtime, where Walker once again had a
chance to keep UF alive. With the Gators down by three and 10
seconds remaining, Walker’s attempt once again came up short,
sealing the win for Butler.
The junior’s misfires were uncharacteristic after a season filled
with clutch plays.
“We couldn’t ask for nothing more,” sophomore guard Kenny Boynton
said. “Erving hits that shot, we win. We trust him. He has hit a
lot of big shots, and it just didn’t fall.”
Florida’s shot selection was questionable to end the game,
specifically Walker’s last two shots, as well as Boynton’s
three-point miss late in overtime. With plenty of time during each
possession, the Gators elected not to go inside despite their
interior dominance during the rest of the game.
Senior Vernon Macklin was particularly effective, scoring a
career-high 25 points on 11-of-14 shooting.
“I felt like we should’ve had better shot selection at the end of
the game,” freshman center Patric Young said.
Overall the Gators scored 36 points in the paint against a physical
Butler squad that never brought a double team to Florida’s interior
players.
Senior forward Alex Tyus finished with 14 of his own, and felt he
and Macklin should’ve been utilized more down the stretch.
“I feel like our players just really weren’t looking for us,” Tyus
said.
Coach Billy Donovan said he wanted to get Macklin even more looks
than his team-high 14 shots, but couldn’t because of foul
trouble.
Macklin played just 24 minutes, as his 44.3 percent free-throw
shooting made him a liability in late-game situations.
After Macklin took advantage of one-on-one opportunities early in
the contest, the Bulldogs decided to make him earn his points at
the stripe.
“They were just not going to allow him to do what he did in the
first half,” Donovan said. “If he was going to get an angle, they
were going to foul him.”
As the game wore on, Butler began beating UF to loose balls and
benefiting from favorable bounces.
Although Donovan said those situations were the difference in the
game, he never questioned his team’s effort.
“They did everything in our power physically, mentally and
emotionally to try to win,” Donovan said.
