Florida Gators Knock Off Kentucky in Overtime

John Calipari issued a warning back on January 6 when Kentucky escaped the O-Dome with an 87-85 win. “I’ll just say it again, Florida’s really good,” Calipari said. “We got lucky. I’m happy we won the game. I’m happy for our team, but I imagine they’re looking forward to coming to Lexington.”

Oh yes, the Gators did look forward to coming to Lexington. They looked forward to the flight back to Gainesville even better after taking out 10th-ranked Kentucky (15-5, 5-3 SEC) 94-91 in overtime at Rupp Arena 94-91. It was the Gators’ (15-6, 5-3 SEC) first road win over a top ten team since 2003 in Starkville. In a season of close calls against teams that figure to make the NCAA Tournament like Virginia, Baylor and Kentucky, this was a reversal of fortune. Florida was the team that made the decisive plays at the end.

“Heck of a win for us,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “We’ve been knocking on the door for a win like this in our opportunities.”

Florida is a really good basketball team. Calipari said it again Wednesday night. He knows fully well that Rupp is a place where the combination of Kentucky talent and a hostile environment turns very good teams into road kill. Only a good team can go into Rupp and do what the Gators did Wednesday night when they sent the game into overtime on a 3-pointer by Walter Clayton Jr. with three seconds left. Only a good team makes all the right plays in overtime, forcing a team with Final Four talent like Kentucky to try to miss a free throw on purpose while hoping for a miracle catch-and-shoot 3-ball at the buzzer that can send the game into a second overtime.

Unless you’re a good basketball team you wilt when the decibel level reaches deafening proportions because the 20,068 packing Rupp to the rafters temporarily lose their sanity.

The Gators did nothing to restore the sanity of the Kentucky faithful. They will be talking for days about how Florida maintained its poise throughout the game, but especially in the final 37 seconds of regulation. That’s when opposing teams’ knees and spinal cords usually turn to jelly. The final 37 seconds brought out the best in the Gators as they fought back from a 4-point deficit and nailed the last shot that sent a second straight game into overtime. Once in the extra period, the Gators completely took the game over.

In most games won on the road by underdogs, a teensy bit of luck comes into play. For Florida it happened with 27.8 seconds left in regulation and the Gators trailing Kentucky 83-79. That’s when Todd Golden made perhaps the most fortuitous time out call of his still young coaching career. A split second after the zebras blew the time out whistle Clayton missed a 3-pointer from the left wing. Badly, but it didn’t matter. The time out call negated the miss.  

Another stroke of good fortune happened when play resumed. The ball went inside to Tyrese Samuel, whose shot was rejected Ugonna Onyenso, who erased eight shots to go with 13 points and 16 rebounds. Samuel, who finished with 22 points, 13 rebounds, one assist, four blocked shots and a steal, somehow wound up with the ball again. Rather than go straight up, he got the ball to Riley Kugel, who dribbled into the corner and the got the ball back to Samuel. This time, Samuel got the layup with his right hand while spinning left, closing the gap to 83-81.

Florida sent Kentucky freshman Rob Dillingham to the foul line with 13.5 seconds to go. He found the bottom of the net with the first free throw, but the second one clanged off the rim and into Clayton’s hands. Clayton kicked it to Zyon Pullin, dribbled through traffic about five feet past the foul line. Pullin killed his dribble, pivoted and delivered a crosscourt pass to Clayton on the left wing. Clayton pump faked, which sent Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard flying past him. Then, just like he does it every day in practice, Clayton launched the 3-pointer that improbably tied the game.

“ZP does a great job attracting the defense,” Clayton said after finishing the night with 23 points (7-13 shooting from the 3-point line), two rebounds, a blocked shot and a steal. “He’s a threat, obviously, so he drove middle, I raised up to the left wing. Reed was a little far away from me, came and closed out. I pump faked and hit the shot.”

It was the best decision on a night of excellent decisions for Pullin, who put together yet another dominant game from the point. Pullin, whose 3-pointer near the end of the first half, was a momentum builder, had 21 points that included 8-9 from the foul line, seven rebounds, seven assists and two steals.

Golden was impressed by the maturity Pullin showed to find the open shooter instead of trying to do it all by himself.

“It would’ve been really easy for ZP to come down and take a hero shot trying to extend the game,” Golden said. “Did a great job playing off two [feet], found Walt on the wrap and, as Walt said, got his defender up in the air, slide-stepped. That’s a great shot for him. Any shot he gets up, we feel like is a really good shot for our team.”

Just like they were Saturday when they beat Georgia in overtime at the O-Dome, the Gators played relaxed and with purpose in the extra period. Samuel got the first points of the overtime and the Gators took the lead for good on Clayton’s seventh 3-pointer of the game with 1:42 left for an 89-86 lead. After that it became a free throw shooting contest. Unlike the game in Gainesville when the Gators went 18-29 from the foul line, the Gators hit 5-6 from the line in the final minute of the game to finish 18-22. In the last three games, the Gators are a combined 52-62.

Still, there were moments when the Kentucky faithful felt a miracle of changing water into wine proportions was in the works. Down 94-87 and with the Wildcats teetering on the verge of extinction, Sheppard hit a straightaway three with 10.5 seconds to go to reduce Florida’s margin to four. Hope sprung eternal when Reeves came up with a steal off a deflection but his subsequent 3-pointer missed the mark. Sheppard came down with the offensive rebound but before he could get the ball in the hands of a 3-point shooter, he was fouled by Pullin.

That meant Sheppard had to make the first of two free throws, try to miss the second and hope the Wildcats could do a catch-and-shoot 3-ball that could tie the game. Just like they drew it up, Sheppard made the first, but his deliberate miss on the second wound up in Clayton’s hands.

The collective groan of the Kentucky faithful said it all.

Just getting to overtime required the Gators to expend so much energy. Instead of looking like a tired and emotionally drained team, however, they played the overtime with energy, poise and maturity.

“Once we got it to overtime, it kind of felt like we were playing with house money at that point,” Golden said. “We weren’t nervous about anything. It was a 5-minute game. Obviously, if you’d asked us coming into it tonight, would you have taken a five-minute game to determine the winner, we would have said absolutely.”

Getting to a point where the Gators had a chance to make it a 5-minute game was an adventure. Kentucky took control of the game in the final minutes of the first half, building a 10-point lead (41-31) with 1:10 to go before the break. The Wildcats had it all going for them, but the Gators had two huge plays to get a bit of momentum heading into the locker room.

The first was a nifty pass from Will Richard to Pullin. Richard drove baseline into Kentucky’s tall trees, but instead of going up for a shot that might have been blocked, he flipped the ball back to Pullin on the right wing. Pullin side-stepped a defender to stick the 3-ball with 51 seconds to go.

Then came the unsung play of the game. Dillingham missed a jumper but freshman Thomas Haugh outmuscled two Kentucky players for the rebound after which he launched a 50-foot two-hand chest pass that was like a QB leading a wide receiver to Richard who got behind the Kentucky backline defense, gathered it in and hit a layup to halve the Kentucky lead with 24 seconds left.

There indeed was momentum and two of the three guys who gave it to the Gators to end the first half cranked it up to start the second. Pullin started the second half with a 3-point play on a layup and a free throw followed by a step back, straightaway 3-pointer by Richard for a 42-41 lead, Florida’s first lead since Denzel Aberdeen’s turnaround jumper in the lane with 7:07 left out the Gators in front 28-27.

It became a 3-man game for the Gators offensively over the next five minutes. Samuel scored six points on three layups, Clayton hit a pair of threes and Pullin hit a pair of free throws, a layup and a short jumper that tied the game at 58-58 with 13:02 left in the game. The Gators were in a real offensive groove, but so were the Wildcats. Every time the Gators hit a shot to tie the score, Kentucky countered with a shot of its own.

Neither team could shake the other until Antonio Reeves scored four points on consecutive possessions – a running bank-shot jumper and a pair of free throws – for an 81-77 lead with 1:50 left in the game.  All that did was set the stage for Florida to make the plays that won the game.

Game notes: Since starting the SEC portion of the schedule 1-3, the Gators have now won four in a row … This was Florida’s first Quad 1 win, which will elevate the Gators in both the NCAA Net Rankings and kenpom.com analytics … Samuel posted his ninth double-double of the season … The Gators hit 32-78 from the field overall (41 percent) and 12-28 (42.9 percent) from the 3-point line. Florida won the rebounding battle 50-48 … The Gators did an exceptional job protecting the basketball. Florida’s nine turnovers (10 fewer than the win over Georgia) were only converted into seven Kentucky points … The Gators got nine points, six rebounds, three assists and a blocked shot from Richard, while Kugel had eight points, three rebounds and four assists … Kentucky shot 35-78 from the field (44.9 percent) and 10-26 (38.5 percent) from the 3-point line … Sheppard was Kentucky’s leading scorer with 24 points to go with eight rebounds, six assists, two blocked shots and a steal. Dillingham scored 20 while Reeves had 19 and Onyenso 13 … The Wildcats, who were so good at the foul line in their win over the Gators in Gainesville, were only 11-17, one of their worst outings of the year.

SEC basketball

Wednesday’s scores: FLORIDA (15-6, 5-3 SEC) 94, No. 10 Kentucky (15-5, 5-3 SEC) 91, OT; No. 16 Auburn (17-4, 6-2 SEC) 81, Vanderbilt (5-15, 0-7 SEC) 54; No. 24 Alabama (15-6, 7-1 SEC) 85, Georgia (14-7, 4-4 SEC) 76; Arkansas (11-10, 2-6 SEC) 91, Missouri (8-13, 0-8 SEC) 74

Saturday’s games: FLORIDA (15-6, 5-3 SEC) at Texas A&M (12-8, 3-4 SEC); No. 5 Tennessee (15-5, 5-2 SEC) at No. 10 Kentucky (15-5, 5-3 SEC); No. 16 Auburn (17-4, 6-2 SEC) at Ole Miss (18-3, 5-3 SEC); Mississippi State (14-7, 3-5 SEC) at No. 24 Alabama (15-6, 7-1 SEC); South Carolina (18-3, 6-2 SEC) at Georgia (14-7, 4-4 SEC); Missouri (8-13, 0-8 SEC) at Vanderbilt (5-15, 0-7 SEC)