GAINESVILLE -- An increasingly familiar failing led to an altogether common result Thursday night.
For the sixth consecutive game, Georgia was outscored in the second half, this time by Florida. It led to the Gators defeating the Bulldogs 71-62 for the ninth consecutive time at O'Connell Center. A Georgia win would have all but secured an NCAA tournament berth.
"Second half, they played harder than us," said guard Travis Leslie, who led the Bulldogs with 20 points.
Georgia led by as many as 11 points in the first half, but surrendered to the moment, and to the Gators, in the second. A variety of missteps -- their inability to match Florida's energy surge, less patience on offense, a handful of messy possessions -- doomed the Bulldogs in the second half.
"We're not the most mature group when it comes to handling success," Georgia coach Mark Fox said.
A Georgia victory over No. 13 Florida, which would have been its first in Gainesville since the 2001-02 season, would have placed the Bulldogs in the NCAA tournament, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi said. With a loss, the résumé still needs some work. Georgia plays South Carolina in Athens on Saturday and finishes with LSU and a road trip to Alabama before the SEC tournament in Atlanta.
"They're on the good side right now, no question, but they're not all the way there yet," Lunardi said Wednesday of the Bulldogs.
Georgia is 18-9 and 7-6 in the SEC. Florida (22-5, 11-2) has won six consecutive games. Georgia has lost 14 of 16 overall to the Gators, including last month's heartbreaking double-overtime loss in Athens.
Georgia led by as many as 11 in the first half, shooting 60 percent from the field and outrebounding the SEC's rebounding-margin leader 17-11. They went into halftime leading 33-26.
The Gators changed the balance of the game immediately, requiring Fox to call a timeout less than 90 seconds into the half. The lead evaporated in less than three minutes, when Florida forward Chandler Parsons, playing on a thigh bruise that had kept him out of the lineup the previous game, knocked down a 3-pointer for a 35-all tie.
At 42-all, Georgia three times failed to inbound the ball. On the second, forward Trey Thompkins called timeout when he couldn’t find an open teammate. After the timeout, Thompkins' pass to Dustin Ware was lost out of bounds. Florida guard Erving Walker scored on a drive on the next possession, and the Gators never trailed after that.
"That one I'm angry about because we just didn't do what we were told to do and shown to do," Fox said of the final inbounds attempt.
The Gators pushed the lead to 10 behind three consecutive 3-pointers by guard Kenny Boynton, but Georgia rallied and trailed by four points, at 63-59, with 3:38 to play. However, Florida closed the game by making six of 11 free throws to go with a Parsons layup. Georgia made one of eight shots in the final two minutes, along with two missed free throws by Thompkins.
"The adversity came, and it kind of overtook us a little bit," Thompkins said.
