Saved by a rubber band! Gators eke out 70-65 win over East Carolina

Saved by the rubber band.

Walter Clayton Jr goes for a layup. Photo Credit FloridaGators.com

If East Carolina’s R.J. Felton had let his braids fall free, the Pirates might have scored a win over the Florida Gators at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland. Felton tied the braids together with a rubber band above his head, however, and the Gators are ever so thankful he did.

With 45.8 seconds left in the game and Florida (7-3) leading East Carolina (6-5), 67-65, Will Richard missed a 3-pointer from just left of the key. In the battle for the rebound, Tyrese Samuel and Felton both grabbed for the ball. Initially, the zebra crew of Ron Groover, Olandis Poole and Don Daily gave the ball to ECU, but since it was a close call in the final two minutes, the play was reviewable. It took all three officials on the replay monitor where it showed the ball rolling off Felton’s elevated braids, held high by a rubber band. If the braids had been free-falling, the ball would have gone out of bounds and belonged to the Pirates with a chance to win.

Given a fresh 20 seconds on the shot clock reset after the zebra crew awarded the ball to UF, the Gators struggled to get anything close to a shot. With Zyon Pullin about to be pinned to the sideline and UF in danger of a shot clock violation, Todd Golden called a 30-second time out. In the huddle he set up a nice curl play that would free Walter Clayton Jr. behind a Tyrese Samuel screen for a straight-on three from the top of the key. There were 31.3 seconds left in the game, five on the shot clock.

The play worked to perfection except Clayton’s 3-pointer clanged off the rim. However, the moment Clayton left his feet to release the shot, Samuel broke through the two defenders he was screening, sprinted to the rim and grabbed the rebound, dunking it back with 20 seconds to go to make it a two-possession game and a 69-65 Florida lead.

For all practical purposes it was game over. ECU missed a 3-pointer, Alex Condon rebounded and was fouled. His first of two free throws was icing on the cake as Florida walked away with a very ugly 70-65 win.

The good thing about ugly wins is they count the same as the perfectly executed blowout variety. This is a game that shouldn’t have been close but 18 Florida turnovers, 13 missed free throws and a bad night at the office when it came to shooting the basketball kept the Pirates very much in the game until those final seconds. The Gators shot only 41.7 percent from the field (25-60) overall and a dismal 25 percent (5-20 from the 3-point line). At the foul line the Gators barely kept their heads above the water (15-28).

And yet, when it counted the most, the Gators made the plays to come away with their third straight win. What saved the Gators was a 51-32 margin on the backboards that included 21 offensive rebounds that UF converted into 16 second half points and extremely good defense. ECU shot only 39.7 percent (25-63) overall from the field and just 31.8 percent (7-22) from the 3-point line.

Games like this happen in seasons that stretch from November to April. Good teams, even the best teams, find themselves in games that should be blowouts only to turn into dogfights determined by what happens in the last couple of minutes. Winning and losing sometimes comes down to a little bit of luck, like hair braids held high by a rubber band.

Todd Golden’s opening statement said, “A win is a win.” He’s right. This was one to hang on the win column and move on, satisfied that the Gators walked away with a win and not a loss.

“It’s hard to be good, and obviously we didn’t have our best tonight,” Golden said. “Credit to East Carolina. I thought they did a good job in the second half dictating what we were doing on the offensive end for the most part, turned us over 11 times. But what I talked about to the guys in the locker room, I thought the last four [minutes] of the game we did a really, really good job of gathering ourselves and executing, ran good offense, got good shots, got on the glass, did a good job defending and found a way to win the game. I think as our program continues to mature, these are the type of wins that, you know, they build character, they build trust, they build belief. I’m proud of our guys to find a way to win tonight.”

Florida had opportunities to put the Pirates away. Multiple opportunities, but each time the Gators had ECU on the ropes, shots stopped dropping, free throws clanged off the rim and turnovers snuffed out scoring chances with far greater frequency than Golden would have liked.

The Gators built an 11-point lead in the first half behind the red-hot shooting of Clayton, who scored 20 of Florida’s first 33 points. It was 35-24 with 2:54 remaining in the first half but the shots stopped dropping. The Gators went 1-8 from the field the rest of the half, scoring only with 46 seconds left when Micah Handlogten followed up his own miss. The bad shooting down the stretch left Florida with an uneasy 37-30 lead at the break.

The Gators hit just 10-29 from the field, 1-10 from the 3-point line and 12-22 from the foul line in a second half in which they turned the ball over 11 times. Among the 19 misses from the field were 12 layups.

With the lead precariously at two, 48-46, the Gators went on a mini-run of 7-0 capped by a driving layup by Zyon Pullin with 10:45 to go. That expanded the lead to 55-46 and once again, the Gators seemed to have control but once again, they went into an offensive funk. Shots wouldn’t fall whether from the field or the foul line. Taking care of the ball seemed to be a lost art.

The 9-point lead dwindled to one, 62-61, with 3:32 to go. The Gators got it back to a 3-point game on a Pullin layup and a free throw by Samuel but East Carolina was back within two on two separate occasions, the second time when R.J. Felton’s hair came up with the play of the game.

Clayton finished the game with 22 points on 9-14 shooting, four rebounds and two steals. It was a celebration of sorts for Clayton, from nearby Lake Wales. He won a high school state championship playing on the RP Funding Center and earlier in the week celebrated the birth of his first child.

“Obviously, through the evaluation process, through the film you see a really talented player, a great three-level scorer, a guy that can really make plays with the ball in his hands, a great facilitator for his teammates, just a really efficient and effective guard,” Golden said. “And when you get to know him as a person, he’s a warrior, man. He’s a warrior. He’s the kind of guy that as a coach gives you confidence when you’re out on the floor when you have guys that, they believe, they trust, and they don’t get rattled.”

Pullin, held scoreless in the first half, had 11 points, four rebounds and four assists. Samuel finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, one assist, one blocked shot and two steals. Will Richard had 10 points to go with seven rebounds, four assists, four blocked shots and two steals. Condon finished with eight points, 12 rebounds, one assist, one blocked shot and one steal.

The Gators are idle until Tuesday when they face Michigan (5-5) in the Jumpman Classic in Charlotte.