Florida basketball could not snap its losing streak.
The Gators suffered its third loss in a row on Saturday, after falling to No. 6 Kentucky 66-57 on the road. UF's postseason future is now hanging in a balance.
After a slow start, Mike White's men did manage to secure a one-point lead heading into the locker room at halftime. However, the momentum swung towards the home side six minutes into the second half.
With UF leading 40-39, Florida did not record a point for seven minutes, while Kentucky went on a 15-2 run to give the Wildcats a 12 point lead and subsequently the win.
"A really good Kentucky team, a team that guards as well as anyone in college basketball right now,” White said in his post game radio interview. “We actually shot a pretty good percentage from two, 44 overall. Only 17 percent from three and didn’t convert at the foul line at a very high rate. We came in here and only had six turnovers, so we did some pretty good things offensively. But going 3-of-18 from three wasn’t enough."
Florida kept UK to just 41 percent shooting, however, failed to deliver on the glass with John Calipari's team winning the battle of the boards 39-23.
“I thought we defended at a pretty high level, it was probably a B+ or A- for us defensively," said White. "From an intensity standpoint, I thought we left about every ounce of energy we had on the floor to hold them to 66 at home. They hit 29 percent from three and had nine assists to 11 turnovers. Just fouled too much. We were a step behind on a lot of the close outs that we had."
The Wildcats did manage to get to the charity stripes more so than the Gators in the contest, however, White did not want to spread any blame.
“We’ve just got to get better at drawing fouls and foul less or you have to convert from three,” the Gators head coach explained. “We have to do one or the other, because we’ve gotten so much better from two, unfortunately haven’t reaped all the rewards from that work."
The Gators were led by Kevarrius Hayes on the scoresheet. The senior scored a season-high 17 points. Hayes also recorded five rebounds and three blocked shots in the loss.
“I love him. He’s tough as nails and leaves it all out there on the floor," said White about Hayes. "He’s maybe had two or three games this year where I was a little bit disappointed in his effort and that’s pretty special in college basketball at this level and this day and age. 31 games. He just brings it. High character off the floor. He’s a high basketball character on the floor type of kid.”
Jalen Hudson was the only other Gator to finish in double digits with 13 points. After his 33-point performance against LSU midweek, the senior guard struggled to find consistency against the Wildcats. He finished shooting 6-of-16 from the floor, 0-for-5 from outside the arc.
This continues the season's theme for Florida's veterans.
Just like Hudson, KeVaughn Allen also struggled to find anything offensively. The senior guard had only made eight of his last 35 shots going into Saturday's matchup. He ended the day making one shot out of six attempts- Allen's only shot coming in at the 15:14 mark in the second half, a three pointer. This was his first field goal after 54 minutes of play.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats had four players finish in double digits: Tyler Herro with 16, PJ Washington with 15, and Ashton Hagans and Keldon Johnson with 14 points.
The Gators will need to win at least one game in the SEC tournament to stay in the NCAA tournament conversations. Florida will most likely face Alabama in the second round on Thursday in Nashville, although Arkansas is also a possibility.
A loss next week would almost certainly put Florida out of the tournament and have them NIT bound.
