If top-ranked and top-seeded Florida didn’t have its best second-half defensive performance of the season Saturday, the Gators would have been on the next flight to Gainesville.
Instead, coach Billy Donovan and company sent fourth-seeded Tennessee home with a 56-49 comeback victory that secured Florida a spot in the SEC tournament title game Sunday against Kentucky, which defeated Georgia 70-58 in Saturday’s other semifinal.
“This group’s got a resiliency, a competitiveness to them,” Donovan said of his players. “They battle. They fight. As I said earlier, we’re not perfect. We have our flaws like any other team.”
Florida’s flaws were evident in the first half. The Gators (31-2) recorded just two assists while turning the ball seven times in the game’s first 20 minutes.
The Volunteers (21-12) also capitalized on the Gators’ poor play in the paint, outscoring Florida 20-12 down low while grabbing four more rebounds.
Despite shooting 54.5 percent compared to Tennessee’s 53.8 shooting percentage in the opening half, UF was down by 10 points with 2:06 remaining before intermission. Coming into Saturday’s semifinal matchup, the Gators’ only previous double-digit deficit this season came at Wisconsin on Nov. 12 during their first loss. Tennessee led 35-28 at the break.
“Our No. 1 key is to not panic, just readjust (and) change our focus,” UF senior center Patric Young said. “Coach definitely gets on us at halftime, just saying we can’t … keep (expecting) ourselves to just turn on a switch and get it going.”
However, that’s exactly what the Gators did following the break.
Florida didn’t shoot as well in the second half — it only made only 40.9 percent of its attempts from the field — but played better in the post.
Young, who went into the locker room with just four points and three rebounds, finished the game leading all scorers with 16 points while also grabbing a team-high eight rebounds.
With Dorian Finney-Smith fouling out with 4:03 remaining and follow forward Will Yeguete playing with four fouls for the final 7:39, Donovan needed Young to step up more than ever.
“It was a battle, especially (because) they have the best offensive rebounding frontcourt in our league, possibly in the country,” Young said. “We just had to go in there and be fearless.”
Added Donovan: “I had no one else to put in. There wasn’t really much we could do there. We weathered the foul trouble there.”
But UF didn’t just weather the storm in the second half. It dominated defensively.
The Volunteers’ 14 points marked the lowest second-half scoring output by a Gators opponent this season. Florida held Tennessee to 5-of-20 shooting, including 1-of-7 from 3-point range, to close out the game.
For the final 12:15, the Vols only made one field goal, when Jordan McRae sunk a 3 to tie the score at 49 with 2:49 remaining. The Gators, however, ended the game on a 7-0 run. Young’s jumper with 2:23 left put UF ahead for good. The Gators went 5-of-6 from the free-throw line down the stretch to ice the game.
UF, which has won its past 25 games, will face Kentucky in the title game at 3 p.m. Sunday (ESPN). The Gators swept the second-seeded Wildcats in their two regular-season games, winning 69-59 on Feb. 15 in Lexington and 84-65 on March 8 in Gainesville.
The Gators lost to Mississippi in last year’s SEC final and are looking for their first conference tournament title since 2007.
“There will be something we’ll gain from tomorrow’s experience just as we did today,” Donovan said. “I’m happy for our guys. But I thought the game really could have gone either way.”
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