Florida guard Jalen Hudson drove to the basket and watched the ball fall through.
He was too quick for Kentucky guard Tyler Herro, too aggressive for forward Travis Reid.
UK coach John Calipari shook his head before calling for a timeout. The Gators just took a 42-31 lead over his No. 7 Wildcats.
It looked like the Gators had full control of the game up to that point. They were the tougher team and had the momentum.
But Florida’s 11-point lead flipped to an 11-point deficit in the six minutes following Hudson’s layup, and the Gators left the O’Connell Center with a 65-54 loss to Kentucky.
Here are three reasons why:
Gators’ offense evaporated at the worst time
It’s hard for a team to win with its two leading scorers combining for just 17 points. And that makes it even harder for Florida (12-9, 4-4 SEC), a team which has been plagued with dry shooting spells all season.
Senior KeVaughn Allen is averaging a team-high 13 points per game, and freshman Noah Locke is behind him with 11.4.
The two guards have failed to combine for 20 points seven times this season. Florida has lost all but two of those games, including Saturday’s defeat against the Wildcats.
Kentucky’s length on the perimeter and in the paint was a clear disruption, and both Allen and Locke struggled to be much a factor on the offensive end.
Seven of Locke’s 12 shot attempts were from beyond the arc, and two three-pointers were all he managed.
Freshman Andrew Nembhard, who hasn’t led the team in scoring for a single game, scored a team-high 12 points. Ten of those came during a first half in which he was the primary source of offense.
Nembhard got to the basket, drained two three-pointers in the first period and used his vision to get the ball to his teammates on the perimeter to knock down open shots.
And when he couldn’t sustain that play and create late in the second half, no one else did.
UK’s PJ Washington and Tyler Herro dominated
They might have been able to beat the Gators all by themselves in those last six minutes.
Washington and Herro helped the Wildcats (18-3, 7-1 SEC) bully UF down low during that span, sparking an 11-0 run after Hudson’s layup with 13:59 left.
Even at the beginning of the matchup when Florida’s defense forced the Wildcats into outside shots -- they shot 3-for-14 during the period -- Herro still found a variety of ways to score.
He started 4 of 4, hitting twice from beyond the arc, and finished with a game-high 19 points.
Washington’s 15-point, 12-rebound double-double probably wasn’t as important as his ability to stimulate the Wildcats’ late-game intensity.
With his team facing an 11-point deficit, the sophomore forward passionately expressed his discontent to the group of Kentucky players that surrounded him. The Wildcats outscored the Gators 34-12 after that.
Even the Florida players noticed Washington’s impact.
“You can hear him talking on the court to his teammates and keeping them going,” center Kevarrius Hayes said. “Even though he wasn’t scoring offensively, he was still active and keeping the guys in check.”
Aggression, lack of depth exhausted Florida down the stretch
Tired is an understatement.
Florida knew it would have to play a stellar 40 minutes of defense against a team with Kentucky’s size that averages almost 80 points per game.
And that depleted every bit of Florida’s energy by the second half, during which Kentucky knocked down 50 percent of its shots.
The Gators didn’t have 6-foot-8 forward Keith Stone to help Hayes box out Kentucky’s big men, so the Wildcats dominated the glass as Hayes ran out of energy.
With few options on the bench to relieve its starters, Florida was eventually too fatigued to get out in transition, stay physical and play to win. It was simply trying not to lose.
“This one hurts because we had the game in our hand,” forward Keyontae Johnson said. “For it to end like this, it’s a hard loss.”
Follow Alanis Thames on Twitter @alanisthames and contact her at athames@alligator.org.
UF coach Mike White (pictured) and the Gators men's basketball team fell to Kentucky 65-54 on Saturday.
