In a week in which just eight scholarship players were healthy to practice, against a team that had its number in recent seasons, Florida played its best 20 minutes of basketball in more than a month Saturday against Vanderbilt.
The second half was more of an adventure, however, but the Gators held on to beat the Commodores 81-74 before an announced sellout of 10,274 at the O’Connell Center.
Florida (9-4, 1-0 SEC) won its sixth straight SEC opener and snapped a five-game losing streak against the Commodores. Florida coach Mike White joked that he kept his sport jacket on the whole game, in part, to change his luck vs. Vanderbilt. In his third season at UF, White has now posted wins against all 13 other SEC teams, improving to 1-5 against the Commodores. Florida’s last win against Vanderbilt came on Feb. 18, 2015 in Billy Donovan’s final season.
“We’ve had some adversity,” White said. “We’ve had two managers slash walkons to get us to play fullcourt and guys responded. To come out and play the way we did in the first 20, guys responded. And now we’ve got to build off that.”
Florida raced to a 40-20 halftime lead, but allowed Vanderbilt to score 54 points and shoot 51.4 percent from the field in the second half. Florida managed to hold on due to a stellar day at the free throw line, shooting 90 percent (27-30). Senior guard Egor Koulechov went 10 of 10 from the free throw line and led three UF scorers in double figures with 22 points and eight rebounds. Senior point guard Chris Chiozza added 17 points, three assists and made some big baskets down the stretch.
With Florida holding a 74-70 lead with under one minute remaining, Chiozza hit a driving layup with 43 seconds left to extend UF’s lead to 76-70. From there, Florida made five of its final six free throw attempts to close out the game.
“We did a good job of not panicking, not slowing the ball up either, trying to milk the clock,” Chiozza said. “We kept trying to push the pace and attack and we were able to do that and get to the line and that got us some easy points.”
Florida entered its SEC opener a MASH unit, with Jalen Hudson limited all week in practice due to an illness, center Gorjok Gak out with sore knees and freshman forward Chase Johnson still out in concussion protocol. Gak and Johnson sat out the game, while Hudson, UF’s leading scorer at 18.1 points per game, scored eight points in 14 minutes off the bench.
Still, the Gators got off to an inspired start, holding Vanderbilt scoreless more than seven minutes into the game. Florida jumped to an early 9-0 lead before Vanderbilt scored its first basket on a dunk by Clevon Brown at the 12:57 mark of the first half.
Junior guard KeVaughn Allen made back to back 3-pointers to extend UF’s lead to 19-8 with 8:29 in the first half. Allen scored 10 of his 16 points in the first half.
After a Hudson four-point play put Florida up 29-11, Vanderbilt answered with a 9-3 run, cutting Florida’s lead to 32-20 on a 3-pointer by Brown with 2:43 left. But Florida closed the half with an 8-0 run. Koulechov scored five straight points on a jumper and 3-pointer to put Florida up 37-20, while Chiozza hit a 3-pointer with 2.7 seconds in the first half to put Florida up 40-20 at halftime.
Koulechov, who entered the game 5 of his last 29 from 3-point range, made 2 of 4 3-point attempts against the Commodores.
“Sometimes when you feel like personally you are in a slump it’s kind of worse, because once you know the problem it is in your head,” Koulechov said. “To me personally, it was try to go back to basics and my teammates have been great, just telling me to keep shooting it every time out.”
Florida blocked six shots in the first half and finished the game with a season-high 10 blocked shots. Junior center Kevarrius Hayes had four blocks, all the first half, and the Gators held Vanderbilt to just 28 percent from the field in the first half.
The Gators, meanwhile, shot 45.2 percent from the field in the first half while going 7 of 15 from 3-point range. Florida’s 81 points overall was its best scoring output since losing 87-84 to then No. 1 Duke on Nov. 26.
“Just starting the game with a string of stops, which is uncharted territory for us, I think gives you confidence offensively,” White said. “We were shooting it with a little bit of pep in our step and had more of a bounce offensively, got some paint touches which led to some open threes.”
Senior forward Jeff Roberson led Vanderbilt’s comeback effort, scoring 15 of his 18 points in the second half. The Commodores (5-8, 0-1) had a chance to cut UF’s lead to one point in the closing minutes, but senior guard Matthew Fisher-Davis missed a 3-point attempt with 1:12 remaining and Florida up 74-70.
“You have to be able to play well for two halves and not just one,” Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew said.
FREE THROWS: Florida next plays Tuesday night at No. 5 Texas A&M (9 p.m., ESPN2), which lost 79-57 at Alabama in its SEC opener Saturday. … Florida director of basketball operations Kyle Church termed a late January return for senior center John Egbunu “optimistic” at a Gator Tipoff Club basketball gathering before the Vanderbilt basketball game. Church said freshman center Isaiah Stokes, who warmed up before the Vanderbilt game, is further along in his rehab from a torn ACL. … Chiozza had his string of two straight games without a turnover snapped when he was called for an over-and-back violation in the first half. Chiozza, who went 73 minutes total without a turnover during the stretch, has posted an assist-to-turnover ratio of 14 of 1 over his last three games. … Koulechov has made 31 straight free throws, which is tied with Kenyan Weeks (1994-95) for the fourth longest streak in school history.
FLORIDA 81, VANDERBILT 74
VANDERBILT (5-8)
Roberson 7-14 1-3 18, Lee 4-9 5-5 13, LaChance 3-5 3-3 11, Fisher-Davis 7-17 0-0 17, Toye 0-5 0-0 0, Brown 2-3 0-1 5, Baptiste 0-0 0-0 0, Austin 0-1 0-0 0, Evans 0-2 0-0 0, Willis 3-6 1-2 10. Totals 26-62 10-14 74.
FLORIDA (9-4)
Stone 2-9 2-2 6, Hayes 2-2 3-4 7, Chiozza 7-15 2-2 17, Allen 4-6 6-6 16, Koulechov 5-13 10-10 22, Bassett 0-0 0-0 0, Okauru 0-3 0-0 0, Hudson 2-5 2-4 8, Ballard 1-1 2-2 5. Totals 23-54 27-30 81.
Halftime_Florida 40-20. 3-Point Goals_Vanderbilt 12-31 (Willis 3-4, Roberson 3-7, Fisher-Davis 3-9, LaChance 2-4, Brown 1-1, Evans 0-1, Lee 0-2, Toye 0-3), Florida 8-19 (Allen 2-3, Hudson 2-4, Koulechov 2-4, Ballard 1-1, Chiozza 1-4, Stone 0-1, Okauru 0-2). Fouled Out_Toye. Rebounds_Vanderbilt 31 (Roberson 7), Florida 34 (Koulechov 8). Assists_Vanderbilt 14 (Willis 4), Florida 7 (Chiozza 3). Total Fouls_Vanderbilt 24, Florida 15. A_10,274 (10,133).
Gators need to work on better defend the three point line in the second half. Too many uncontested threes shot by Vandy. Otherwise it was a good game for the Gators
54 points in the second half is way too many. Didn’t get to watch the first half, but saw most of the second, and either the defense was just weaker in the second half, or shots that Vandy was missing finally started to go in. Hopefully it was more of a fatigue factor since they only had 8 players available for the game, and it doesn’t look like Okauru or Ballard got much court time, while I can’t imagine that Hudson was fully game ready after missing most of the week with his illness. Still a great job at the line…good to see Koulachov get there, he’s way too good a FT shooter not to get there, and they found a way to grind out the win. Always good to start the conference schedule 1-0.
An SEC win and we’ll take it. Congrats to players and coaches! Gators will see some wounded and angry Aggies. They are lengthy and athletic. It will be interesting to see how we match up and play away from home. I think we’ll give’em a good game and maybe pull an upset. Best of luck Gators! Go Gators!
Second half more typical of the Gators than the first. Stone and Hayes very disappointing this season. They’ll certainly lose 11-12 games which puts them on the bubble and will probably
(deservedly) be left out. If Egbunu isn’t ready by the end of January, why would they even play him this season? For the NIT!? Same goes for Stokes. Looking at Allen, Koul and Hudson, one can see that they’re all good — maybe the most important ingredient though, toughness, none of them have it. Can you imagine how this team would look if these three had the grit of Brewer, Horford and Noah? They were picked to finish second in the SEC — they will be much closer to sixth than second.
Good win, Gators, & great 1st half, too! I love that Coach ‘W’ left his jacket on. Just like some of us Gator fans, just a ”little-stitious”, but not super! Other Gator fans like Bill (above), well what can I say? They’re either posers (Dawgs or ‘Noles) or completely negative people with little hope in this team, sadly. Because this team will need all of the Gator Nation’s support in this new year. Go Gators!
Probability that they will upset Texas A&M: That, folks, is virtually zero. At Missouri, Jan.6? Forget about winning that one also.
Probability that the Gators will win either of the next two: Virtually zero
Good thing the Gators played an ‘inspired’ first half because the real Gators showed up in the 2nd half. They tried to give the game to Vandy. There just wasn’t enough time.
I see what ur doing there bill.
Attended my first Gator basketball game in more than 5 years, and I must say, this team is as bad in person as they are on the TV. K. Hayes is just awful, he struggled against a 6’6″ Vandy forward, the guy took Hayes to the hole numerous times, Hayes plays defense like he’s trying not to foul, and on offense he’s lost. The Gator offense has no rhythm, no flow. Mike White admitted after the game that during the first 6 games of lighting it up from the perimeter, the coaching staff failed to work on any post play, and it has shown. This Gator team has no big men they can go to on offense, the pick and roll is no part of the Mike White offense. Pass it around the perimeter until someone gets on open shot or the shot clock forces a bad shot. I would expect an A&M romp Tuesday night, Gators have no answer for the big men A&M will throw at them. 12-14 losses won’t surprise me this year.
Why can’t White get physical big men? Kevin, your critique of Hayes is accurate. Egbunu won’t help much since he can’t score and is far from a dominate big man around the basket. Things don’t look too rosy.
wow its gonna get ugly for SEC football today, wow!