Florida Men’s Basketball Advances To SEC Tournament Final
Before Thursday, not many believed the six-seeded Gators would make it all the way to the SEC Tournament championship game. But one thing is for certain, the Gators believe they can win it all.
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The Florida men’s basketball team overcame an 18-point deficit to get revenge against Texas A&M, 95-90, in the semifinals of the conference tournament Saturday at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
The Gators (24-10) advance to their first SEC Tournament title game since 2014 to face fourth-seeded and 12th-ranked Auburn (26-7) at 1 p.m. (ESPN, 103.7-FM) today.
Unlikely hero Denzel Aberdeen came off the bench to lead the scoring effort for Florida with a career-high 20 points. Will Richard scored 19 with four 3-pointers. Walter Clayton Jr. had 16 and both Zyon Pullin and Tyrese Samuel had 15 each.
For Texas A&M (20-14), which defeated the Gators 67-66 at College Station on Feb. 3, Wade Taylor IV tried to put his team on his back by scoring 30, but it was not enough. UF also snapped a five-game losing streak to the Aggies.
A Diamond In The Rough
After the Gators beat the brakes off of Alabama the night before, that momentum did not translate to start the game.
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The Aggies came out with a pressing 2-3 zone. Florida was not able to find answers to it for the first 12 minutes. The Gators were struggling on the boards as the zone allowed Texas A&M to have at least two people ready for the defensive rebound.
Then a 1-for-8 field-goal stretch allowed the Aggies to pad the lead to as much as 18 points. When everything seemed like the beginning of the end, enter Aberdeen.
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The Orlando Dr. Phillips High School guard was able to find holes in the Aggies’ zone by scoring 12 first-half points to ignite a 6-for-8 field-goal run that helped UF cut the deficit to 50-42 at the half.
Everything Flips For Gators
After barely scoring the basketball in the first, the Gators were almost hitting everything in the second.
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Although they lost the rebounding battle in half two, Florida was able to light up from beyond the arc by going 8-for-15 in the half. Also with eight forced turnovers in the second half, the Gators were able to go on a 6-0 run to retake the lead, 59-58.
Seeing that they were not just back in it but leading, the Gators put the pedal to the metal by opening their lead to 11 with with a huge and-1 3 by Clayton Jr. Even though they could not score a bucket in the final three minutes, Florida was able to close out the game at the free-throw line by knocking down 9 of 10 free throws.
Up Next
Florida, playing its fourth game in four days, defeated Auburn, which advanced to the title game by defeating nine seed Mississippi State 73-66 in the first semifinal, 81-65 on Feb. 10 in Gainesville.
Category: Basketball, College Basketball, Feature Sports News, Gators Men's Basketball, NCAA, SEC
