Gators won't quit, but fall to 13th-ranked Baylor, 95-91

Todd Golden didn’t get the signature win over 13th-ranked Baylor in the championship game of the NIT Season Tipoff at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn Friday evening but he may have learned something every bit as valuable. On a night when it seemed that Baylor was constantly on the verge of sprinting to a blowout, Golden and the Florida Gators showed they can not only take a punch, but they are more than capable of fighting back.

Baylor’s 95-91 win had everything to do with a barrage of 3-point shots. The Bears won the battle of the 3-point line by 18 points but even 14-25 shooting from beyond the arc couldn’t make the Gators go away.

“We out-rebounded them, turned it over less than they did, shot a better percentage from two than they did, but they won the game today because they shot the ball better from three than we did,” Golden said.

Florida won the battle of the backboards 38-33 and the Gators’ 12 turnovers resulted in just 13 Baylor points. Florida, on the other hand, converted 14 Baylor turnovers into 21 points. The Gators outscored Baylor in the paint, 38-26, and on the fast break, 21-2.

Baylor scored 42 points from the 3-point line. Florida scored 24 on 26 3-point shots and that proved to be the difference in the game.

Baylor had ample opportunities to run away with the game in both halves. Behind their 3-point shooting, they led by as many as 11 points on two occasions in the first half before going into the halftime locker tied at 41-41. In the second half, Baylor led by nine on two occasions but couldn’t deliver the haymaker to put the Gators to rest.

Some of it had to do with defense, or lack of.

“As I examine the box score, [an] even game all the way around with the exception of the 3-point line,” Golden said. “They obviously shot incredibly well, 56 percent. There were plenty of things we could’ve done a little better defensively in terms of guarding the three.

“Like I told our guys in the locker room, we need to limit attempts better, but once that ball is in the air there is only so much you can do about controlling the outcome and 56 percent is going to be tough to overcome – 14 made threes for them. Obviously, we only made eight out of our 26.”

It wasn’t just the volume of Baylor’s threes, it was how timely they were. There was a three-minute stretch midway through the second half in which Florida kept clawing away at the Baylor lead, only to have the Bears hit four critical 3-pointers that were like daggers. Every time the Gators looked to spurt past Baylor, the Bears rained down another three to turn it into a catch-up affair once again.

The one that hurt the most was at the 9:56 mark when Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua launched and landed an unlikely 3-pointer at the top of the key, which was followed by a Jalen Bridges bomb 38 seconds later. RayJ Dennis hit a step-back 3-pointer with 8:01 to go, Baylor’s third straight 3-pointer that gave the Bears a 70-64 lead.

“Obviously, they hit big, big shots at big moments,” Golden said. “I think we had it tied and then No. 23, their third-string center [Tchamwa Tchatchoua], hit that big pick-and-pop three in the middle of the floor. They hit like two or three in a row as a team, that was the separation.”

Then came the fourth 3-ball, the only one Jayden Nunn hit the entire evening with 6:54 to go in the game for a 75-69 lead. From that point onward, it was a game of chase. The Gators were constantly in a catch-up mode while Baylor hit its free throws and just enough clutch shots to maintain at least a 2-possession lead and that sealed the deal.

Depth was an issue the entire night for UF. Micah Handlogten, who injured his ankle in the first minute of the win over Pittsburgh, was dressed Friday but spent the night on the bench because Golden wasn’t comfortable playing the 7-1 sophomore until his ankle has done a bit more healing. That wasn’t a problem against Pitt because freshmen Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh played well off the bench in support of Tyrese Samuel. Samuel had another big game against Baylor with 18 points, six rebounds and two steals, but Condon and Haugh combined for just six points, five rebounds and three blocked shots. Against Pitt, they were good for 18 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots.

Where Handlogten was missed most was on the defensive end. The Gators missed his presence in the paint, but it also left UF one down in the big man rotation and that was costly.

“It was more on the defensive end, I think, where it affected us in terms of putting Tyrese and Condon in these ball-screen coverages all game long where they’re getting fatigued a little bit,” Golden said. “We didn’t have one more guy to rest them or give them a little more time.” Clayton, who lit up Pittsburgh for 28 points Wednesday night when he hit 6-8 from the 3-point line, was visibly under the weather. He was instrumental in numerous Florida mini-comebacks when it seemed Baylor had the Gators on the ropes, but he just didn’t have the same lift on his jump shots. Clayton wound up with 11 points, six rebounds, four assists, two blocked shots and two steals, but he hit only 1-8 from the 3-point line and only 4-6 from the foul line.

Picking up the offensive slack were Riley Kugel, who had 25 points, nine rebounds, three assists, a blocked shot and a steal, and Zyon Pullin, who had 17 points, two rebounds, five assists and a steal. Additionally, Denzel Aberdeen played productive minutes off the bench with eight points, three rebounds and an assist.

Kugel was a one-man wrecking crew in the second half when he scored 17 points on 7-14 shooting including 2-4 from the foul line. He had five rebounds, an assist and a blocked shot to conclude his best game of the season.

Next up for the Gators is a Wednesday night game in Winston-Salem with Wake Forest as part of the SEC-ACC Challenge.

SEC basketball

Friday’s games: No. 13 Baylor (6-0) 95, FLORIDA (4-2) 91; No. 19 Florida Atlantic (4-1) 96, No. 12 Texas A&M (4-1) 89; No. 14 North Carolina (5-1) 87, No. 20 Arkansas (4-3) 72; No. 16 Kentucky (5-1) 118, Marshall (2-4) 82; Ohio State (4-1) 92, No. 17 Alabama (4-1) 81; No. 25 Mississippi State (6-0) 74, Nicholls (3-4) 61; Georgia (3-3) 78, Winthrop (4-3) 69; LSU (4-2) 75, North Florida (4-3) 63; Arizona State (3-2) 82, Vanderbilt (3-3) 67

Saturday’s games: Loyola (1-4) at Missouri (4-2); No. 17 Alabama (4-1) vs. Oregon (4-1) at Destin, FL

Sunday’s game: Iowa State (5-1) vs. No. 12 Texas A&M (4-1) at Kissimmee, FL