No Apologies Necessary: Gators Take Down Georgia in Overtime

With less than six seconds showing in regulation and a chance for Georgia to put the last cruel nail in a coffin of Florida’s own making, Justice Hill, who had been wearing out every defender the Gators put on him lost control of his dribble, the ball bouncing mysteriously and ever so conveniently into the hands of Will Richard. Richard tried to break out of a pack with a nifty behind the back dribble but his attempted 3-pointer at the buzzer banked off the glass, onto the iron and harmlessly away as time ran out.

photo credit - FloridaGators.com

For a team that had somehow survived blowing all 21 points of what seemed like an insurmountable lead, going to overtime must have felt a lot like rolling up to the gas pump after the engine has coughed out the last fumes from an empty gas tank. In the huddle before the extra five minutes were tacked on, a re-start after a 40-minute battle produced an 85-85 deadlock, Florida coach Todd Golden gave the Gators an ultimatum.

“The message was, 'Hey, we can respond one or two ways in the situation: we can either feel sorry for ourselves and, you know, think we blew it and just kind of not regain that focus and regain that fight, or we can buck up and get back to playing basketball.'”

In overtime, the Gators chose to play basketball more like they were playing when they led 68-47 with 12:52 left in regulation and a lot less like the team hell bent on going belly up. The five extra minutes weren’t without a couple of moments that all but sucked the air out of the lungs of the O-Dome crowd of 10,045, but somehow, someway, Florida (14-6, 4-3 SEC) played through the troubles, got its third straight win, 102-98, and pulled one game over .500 in Southeastern Conference play for the first time this season.

That it took overtime one game removed from nearly blowing a 19-point lead in a win over Mississippi State earlier in the week was irrelevant. This is the SEC, the toughest league in the country not named Big 12. The SEC is so tough that the few and the proud that finish the regular season at 9-9 are likely to find their names filling out NCAA Tournament brackets in March.

Even though the Gators have seemingly hit a wall when they were on the verge of getting statement blowouts the last two games, the only thing that matters is both games wound up in the win column. As so many Hall of Fame coaches have reiterated time and time again, you never apologize for winning. The ugly wins count the same as the pretty ones.  

“The great thing is we can learn from it positively and not have a tough weekend thinking about a brutal loss,” Golden said. “That's part of growing as a program. You know, we've obviously improved over these last couple weeks. You don't get up by 19 and 21 in these two games at home against some good teams if you're not improving from where we were a month ago and I think the next step for our group is just pushing through and playing the full 40, you know, regardless of the score, regardless of the situation, just staying true to what we want to do in terms of our execution, in terms of taking care of the ball and I didn't think we did that last 10 minutes.”

The last 10 minutes of regulation were dog’s butt ugly, a sharp contrast to the first 30. In those first 30 minutes, the Gators did everything right. They shot well, they defended, they dominated the backboards, they made exceptionally good decisions with the basketball. You name it, the Gators did it well.

In those first 30 minutes, the Gators looked like a team that won't have to sweat Selection Sunday when the NCAA fills out the tournament brackets. Then came the last 10 minutes and the nightmare that was RJ Melendez, a certifiable SCUD launcher who went into a shooter’s coma. It’s not that Melendez wasn’t shooting well prior to the final 10, but he lit up the Gators for 14 of his 35 points down the stretch. When Georgia had the ball for the final possession in regulation every Gator fan in the O-Dome was fearful the ball would wind up in the hands of Melendez. He might have had a chance to win it if Justice Hill hadn't lost control of the ball.

Coming into the game in Gainesville, Melendez was 14-62 (22.6 percent) from the 3-point line. He was 6-10 against the Gators when even the shots that didn’t go in looked good all the way. When he wasn’t bombing away behind the 3-point line, he was putting the ball on the deck and driving to the rim. It seemed that Golden tried every defender he had on Melendez at one time or another, but none of them had answers.

Fortunately, Melendez never saw the ball at the end of regulation. He scored seven of the Bulldogs’ 13 overtime points, but it was a completely different story in the five minute extra period. The Gators came out dominant, starting with Zyon Pullin’s layup and free throw to break the ice and the 85-85 deadlock. On consecutive trips down the floor, Walter Clayton Jr. made nifty passes for assists, one that got a layup for Micah Handlogten and a 90-87 lead and another to Richard for another layup to make it 92-89.

With 2:41 left in overtime, Pullin knocked in a flatfooted shot from about 12 feet out and after a missed 3-ball by Clayton, Richard grabbed the offensive rebound and got the ball up and in among the trees to put the Gators up 96-91. Florida’s last six points came from the foul line, two by Clayton, two by freshman Alex Condon and two by Pullin with five seconds left to make it a 2-possession game at 102-98.

Trailing by four, Melendez finally went snake eyes on a 3-pointer that mattered. His 30-footer just before the final buzzer struck iron and bounced into Pullin’s hands to seal the win.

Pullin put together another brilliant game at the point with 20 points (6-9 from the field overall, 1-1 from the 3-point line, 7-8 from the foul line), seven rebounds and eight assists with only one turnover. In Florida’s seven Southeastern Conference games, Pullin has 31 assists and only five turnovers while hitting 36-42 from the foul line.

Handlogten had his best game as a Gator and perhaps the best of his collegiate career with 23 points and 17 rebounds, becoming the first Gator with 17 rebounds since Alex Tyus did it against BYU in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. Handlogten hit 10-13 shots from the field including 1-1 from the 3-point line and he was 2-3 from the foul line. With Handlogten leading the way, the Gators outrebounded the Bulldogs, 48-27, with 16 rebounds coming on the offensive end.

Richard had 18 points, seven rebounds, three assists, a blocked shot and three steals. Clayton had 18 points with two rebounds, two assists, a blocked shot and a steal. Condon had 10 points, four rebounds, five assists and a blocked shot.

The negative was Florida’s 19 turnovers. The Gators turned the ball over only 15 times in the previous two games combined, but they turned it over 10 times in the second half alone which Georgia converted into 16 points.

“If we take care of the ball, we’re going to be really good offensively, because we get on the glass so well,” Golden said. “You know, we had 16 offensive rebounds tonight. We almost got 50 percent of our misses back, so a great formula is just getting a shot, as crazy as that sounds. But we can’t come in with 19 turnovers, because that’ll give the other team life, and that leads to transition and that leads to difficult things to recover from.” 

Somehow, the Gators turned it over enough times that Georgia scored 24 points and despite the dominance on the backboards, Georgia scored 54 points in the paint.

So, this was a game of the good, the bad and the ugly, and despite too much bad and too much ugly, the Gators left the O-Dome with a win and some momentum heading into Wednesday night when they face Kentucky in Rupp Arena.

Golden recognized the importance, not just of this win but of the 3-game winning streak that the Gators take into a tough 3-game stretch of (at) Kentucky, (at) Texas A&M and Auburn (home).

“Very important, you know, for two reasons,” Golden said. Number one, it makes my weekend a lot better. So, I'm gonna go home and watch some games and not hate myself all night. I can go enjoy it and just think about ways I can improve and do a better job for our club. And the reality is, the guys feel it. Like, we're definitely playing better. We're playing better. The wins are stacking. And listen, we’ve got a tough stretch coming up. We go to Rupp, we go to College Station. I think we have Auburn coming in after a bye after that. So it ain’t getting any easier.

“And this was a game we were supposed to win. Not that that means that you're definitely going to win as proven by their comeback. But when you stack games like this, you put yourself in position to accomplish your goals. So it was a big win for us against a program and a ballclub that we have a lot of respect for. Mike [White] did a really good job keeping them poised and obviously kind of fueling that comeback, but I was proud of the way our guys got it done.”

SEC basketball

Saturday’s scores: FLORIDA (14-6, 4-3 SEC) 102, Georgia (14-6, 4-3 SEC) 98, OT; No. 5 Tennessee (15-4, 5-1 SEC) 75, Vanderbilt (5-14, 0-6 SEC) 62; No. 6 Kentucky (15-4, 5-2 SEC) 63, Arkansas (10-10, 1-6 SEC) 57; Mississippi State (14-6, 3-4 SEC) 64, No. 8 Auburn (16-4, 5-2 SEC) 58; Alabama (14-6, 6-1 SEC) 109, LSU (11-9, 3-4 SEC) 88; South Carolina (17-3, 5-2 SEC) 72, Missouri (8-12, 0-7 SEC) 64; Ole Miss (17-3, 4-3 SEC) 71, Texas A&M (12-8, 3-4 SEC) 68

Tuesday’s games: South Carolina (17-3, 5-2 SEC) at No. 5 Tennessee (15-4, 5-1 SEC); Mississippi State (14-6, 3-4 SEC) at Ole Miss (17-3, 4-3 SEC)

Wednesday’s games: FLORIDA (14-6, 4-3 SEC) at No. 6 Kentucky (15-4, 5-2 SEC); Vanderbilt (5-14, 0-6 SEC) at No. 8 Auburn (16-4, 5-2 SEC); Alabama (13-6, 5-1 SEC) at Georgia (14-6, 4-3 SEC); Arkansas (10-10, 1-6 SEC) at Missouri (8-12, 0-7 SEC)