Furious second half rally comes up one point short for 5th-ranked UF
- Franz Beard
- Jan 15, 2025
- 5 min read
Fifth-ranked Florida was already digging a deep first half hole Tuesday night when Caleb Grill went into a shooter’s coma. During a three-minute shooting spreee Grill unloaded four 3-pointers on the Gators who came into the game third in the nation in 3-point defense. It’s not like Grill had all day to load up and launch, either.
“Caleb Grill made some ridiculous shots, you know, and I think at least three of those four makes were relatively contested,” Florida coach Todd Golden said after the Gators (15-2, 2-2 SEC) dropped an 83-82 decision to Missouri (14-3, 3-1 SEC) at the O-Dome.
The Gators trailed 14-11 when Grill nailed his first one. It was 30-17 when he hit his fourth. By then Missouri was well on its way to a 19-point first half lead, 42-23, with 7:22 left in the half. That was as big as the lead would get. Florida would get it down to 10 (44-34) with 4:32 to go on a pair of Walter Clayton Jr. free throws, but Missouri put a halt to Florida’s surge and tacked on six more points for a 50-34 halftime lead.
Some of it had to do the 3-point shooting -- Missouri hit seven of its first 11 -- but a lot of it had to do with the way the Tigers outplayed the Gators on the inside and how they defended. Missouri was easily the more physical team and it showed on the backboards where they held a 17-15 margin at the half. The Gators, who thrive on second chance points, managed only four first half offensive rebounds that were converted into five points.
Defensively, the Tigers put the pressure on the Gators, making it very difficult to get any kind of inside-out game going. The Gators spent way too much time in the first half unable to get any entry passes down low, thwarting the return passes to open shooters on the perimeter. Missouri scored 10 first half points off eight Florida turnovers. Missouri turned the ball over only three times and the Gators failed to convert them for even one point.
Clayton scored 18 first half points and Alijah Martin added six on a pair of 3-pointers but there was very little in the way of help from anyone else. Florida’s four big guys combined for seven points and they squeezed off only two shots among them.
“They were more ready to play than we were, obviously jumped on us in the first half and we were not ready for it,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “And obviously it starts with me. I need to do a better job making sure that we’re ready to go and making sure that we understand what’s in front of us. Obviously, this is a very good team that we played tonight, 3-1 in the league, 14-3 overall.”
Missouri did show up to play at a fast pace while the Gators spend the entire first half digging a hole that they struggled to get out of in the second half. The Gators had a completely different energy level when the second half began but they never could completely erase the Missouri lead.
A fast break layup by Will Richard cut the Missouri lead to 55-46 with 15:39 to go in the game, the first time the Gators trailed by fewer than 10 points for the first time since it was 30-17 with 11:57 to go in the first half. A 4-point outburst by Rueben Chinyelu, both on offensive rebounds, narrowed the margin all the way to five but Missouri pushed the lead back to 11 with 9:05 left (65-54).
Twice Clayton got the Gators back within three -- the first time on a Clayton layup with 7:23 remaining, the second time on a 3-pointer by Clayton with 3:49 left that made it a 72-69 game with 3:41 left.
During the last three minutes, the Gators had ample opportunity to take the game over, but ugly 3-point defense reared its head again and there were a pair of unexpected misses at the foul line by Clayton. Trent Pierce hit a three for Missouri with 3:08 to go to give the Tigers a 75-70 lead. Clayton was fouled while shooting a 3-ball, but he clanged the first two shots off the rim before making the third.
Opportunity lost. Instead of closing to 75-73 it was 75-71. Grill did more damage from the 3-point line with 2:23 to go to put Missouri up 78-71. Florida’s rally wasn’t over just yet. The Gators got a layup from Clayton with 2:11 to go, a pair of free throws by Martin with 1:34 left and a bank shot coming off a curl by Marin with 38.5 seconds left that got it down to two, 79-77.
Florida nearly had a steal at midcourt but Missouri was awarded a time out with 29.5 seconds left. One more second and UF would have had a 10-second violation. Instead there was a foul that sent Mark Mitchell to the line for a pair of free throws for a 4-point lead. Florida missed a three, got two back on a layup by Alex Condon, then came a foul that sent Grill to the line. He made the first for a 4-point lead with five seconds to go making Martin’s three with a second left irrelevant.
The loss left a bitter taste in Golden’s mouth, largely because the Gators played so poorly and lacking energy in the first half. The Gators played so much better in the second half, but even so, they couldn’t dig themselves completely out of the first half hole.
“I thought our effort in the second half was way better,” Golden said. “We outscored them by 15 (48-33). We played a lot better, but too little too late. One thing that we talked about a lot with our guys is we are the team that has been able to get where nobody thought we could go. We are a team of guys that are not supposed to be at Florida, whether it's our players or our coaches. We are the underdogs, we have the chip on our shoulder and tonight was the first time all year that I did not feel that we competed with that mentality. And that's something that we gotta get back for Saturday."
Saturday, the Gators will take on Texas (11-5, 0-3 SEC) in a 4 p.m. game at the O-Dome.
Game notes: The Gators managed to outrebound Missouri 37-36 but this game was far from the domination on the backboards of the previous two games ... Despite giving up the 7-11 start from the 3-point line, Missouri was only 4-15 the rest of the way. Unfortunately the two 3-pointers down the stretch were killers ...
Clayton finished with 28 points while Martin had 14. Richard finished with 12 while Chinyelu had 11 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out ... The Gators were only 21-31 from the foul line while Missouri was 18-29 ... The officiating crew of Pat Adams, James Breeding and Brian Dorsey whistled 47 fouls, 23 against the Gators, 24 against Missouri ... Clayton was 3-9 from the 3-point line. It was his 40th consecutive game with at least one 3-pointer, moving him into sole possesssion of second place for the longest 3-point streak in Florida history. If he hits a three Saturday against Texas he will tie Michael Frazier II.
SEC BASKETBALL
Tuesday’s scores
Missouri (14-3, 3-1 SEC) 83, No. 5 FLORIDA (15-2, 2-2 SEC) 82
No. 1 Auburn (16-1, 4-0 SEC) 88, No. 15 Mississippi State (14-3, 2-2 SEC) 66
No. 21 Ole Miss (15-2, 4-0 SEC) 74, No. 4 Alabama (14-3, 3-1 SEC) 64
No. 8 Kentucky (14-3, 3-1 SEC) 81, No. 11 Texas A&M (13-4, 2-2 SEC) 69
LSU (12-5, 1-3 SEC) 78, Arkansas (11-6, 0-4 SEC) 74
Tonight’s games
No. 23 Georgia (14-2, 2-1 SEC) at No. 6 Tennessee (15-1, 2-1 SEC)
Texas (11-5, 0-3 SEC) at Oklahoma (13-3, 0-3 SEC)
South Carolina (10-6, 0-3 SEC) at Vanderbilt (13-3, 1-2 SEC)
Blogs are not showing up on my email. I have to go to gator bait.net each day.
Good comments! Love the column, you give it your all like the Gators did in the second half. A big shout out to you! Great effort gators in the 2nd half. They didn't quit.
Mizzou’s first half shooting was extraordinary, making threes with our guys in their faces. Particularly Grill who was in a shooter’s coma. When Walt missed those first two of three free throws he had been beaten up and looked physically drained. Hats off to the victors for capturing a major upset, though this Florida team showed its resiliency with its second half fight. Every SEC game has felt like a tournament match-up. It’s a great league.
SEC basketball has become like SEC football- we just beat up on each other