Before tipoff on Tuesday night, coach Billy Donovan said he knew Tennessee would not shoot 26.8 percent like it did last time it faced No. 3 Florida. Seniors Scottie Wilbekin and Will Yeguete joined in to say there was no way Jordan McRae would have another 1-of-15 shooting night.
Fortunately for the Gators, the Volunteers’ improved shooting performance was still not enough to topple the Southeastern Conference’s top team.
Florida (22-2, 11-0 SEC) extended its winning streak to 16 with a 67-58 victory Tuesday night in Knoxville, Tenn., — one victory shy of tying the school record set during the 2006-2007 championship years.
Although Tennessee (15-9, 6-5 SEC) knocked down 19 percent more shots than it did when it visited the O’Connell Center in a 67-41 loss, Florida held on long enough to earn only its second win in its last nine tries in the Thompson-Boling Arena.
“I’m so proud of our guys,” Donovan said. “When you play on the road against a good team ... you’re going to have to go through some moments where you’re teetering, and I thought there were several moments in this game where we were teetering.”
The Gators were once again faced with an uphill battle in the first half; eight of their 11 SEC contests were at least seven-point games by halftime, including Tuesday night.
Although the Gators jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead, Jarnell Stokes, who finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds, and the rest of the Volunteers charged back to lead by as much as six after holding the Gators scoreless for just fewer than five minutes.
With 7:28 left in the first half, Florida held a 26-22 advantage but could not hit its next five field goals, allowing Tennessee to jump ahead 32-26 with 3:51 remaining.
A five-point scoring stretch by Casey Prather and a last-second floater by Wilbekin cut the lead to 34-33 to end the half. In the first 20 minutes, the Vols shot 63 percent compared to the Gators’ 36 percent.
“The thing I was most excited about coming out of the half was the fact that we were shooting 36 percent to their [63] and it was a one-point game,” Donovan said. “That was encouraging to me.”
Florida began the second half with a 20-12 run, which built enough of a cushion for the Gators to endure another scoreless streak that lasted just fewer than six minutes this time.
Back-to-back threes by Michael Frazier II, who finished second on the team with 11 points, and Wilbekin, who finished first with a career-high 21 points, made it a two-possession game and essentially sealed the victory.
Despite Wilbekin’s game-high scoring output, the senior finished the night only 5 of 17 from the floor, including just 1 of 6 from beyond the arc. The Gators as a whole sunk only 36.2 percent of their shots, the lowest efficiency this season, but their hustle and effort made up for the poor shooting night.
Senior Patric Young’s six points and six rebounds don’t show his impact on the court late in the matchup.
After the Vols hit a free throw to cut the Gators’ lead to 61-55, Young grabbed two offensive rebounds to help his team maintain possession and run the clock down enough so Tennessee had no choice at a comeback.
His second of his two offensive rebounds came off his own missed shot, but he redeemed himself by laying out for the ball near the baseline after the miss, outreaching two defenders to give Florida another full shot clock.
“That was amazing,” Wilbekin said of Young’s effort. “That could have been the play of the game, who knows.”
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @jczupryn
Scottie Wilbekin drives the ball down the court in Florida’s 78-69 win against Alabama on Saturday in the O’Connell Center. On Tuesday, Wilbekin scored a team-high 21 points on 5-of-17 shooting against Tennessee, leading his team to only its second win in its last nine meetings in the Thompson-Boling Arena.
