Free throw woes doom Florida again in 71-64 loss

By Adam Silverstein
January 29, 2011

Coming into Starkville, MS undefeated on the road and with a nine-game regular season winning streak against the Southeastern Conference West division, the No. 23/24 Florida Gators (16-5, 5-2 SEC) struggled mightily from the free throw line and eventually fell to the Mississippi State Bulldogs (11-9, 3-3 SEC) 71-64 at Humphrey Coliseum on Saturday afternoon.

Up 63-62 with 5:17 left in the game, Florida went cold from both the field and charity stripe, allowing Mississippi State to put together a 9-1 game-ending run. The Gators missed eight consecutive field goals and five of six attempts from the line, while the Bulldogs hit seven of their final eight free throw attempts to ice the game.

MSU started the first half on fire, connecting on five of their first eight shots from long distance. Taking a game-high 10-point lead early, they quickly coughed it up and allowed UF to put a dent in their deficit. Florida used a 10-2 run to tie the contest at 38, but Mississippi State would take a two-point lead going into halftime.

The Bulldogs came out of the break hot, using an 11-4 run to take a nine-point lead. The Gators answered with a 13-1 run of their own; it ended with a trey and two free throws by junior point guard Erving Walker, which gave UF its first lead of the game, 55-52.

Two triples from MSU G Dee Bost put his team ahead three, but Florida took the lead 63-62 and then tied it at 64 before falling apart at the conclusion of the contest.

All three of the Gators leads came in the second half, but their inefficiency from the line and beyond the arc doomed them in the end. Florida finished 9-of-19 from the charity stripe (47.4 percent) and only 5-of-21 from three-point range (23.8) percent. Mississippi State, after starting the game strong, went cold from three until the end of the second half. As a team, MSU finished 19-for-23 from the line.

Unlike the Gators, which saw all 10 of their players score, only four Bulldogs got the ball in the basket. Bost led MSU with 24 points and went 4-for-8 from downtown, forwards Kodi Augustus and Renardo Sidney each scored 16, and G Ravern Johnson contributed 15 important points.

Walker led Florida with 18 points on 6-of-17 shooting but was only 2-for-8 from downtown. Redshirt senior center Vernon Macklin scored 10 points, and senior F Chandler Parsons grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with nine points.

Sophomore guard Kenny Boynton, who is supposed to be one of the Gators best scorers, went an anemic 2-for-11 from the field and 0-for-4 from beyond the arc. Senior F Alex Tyus added six points and five boards.

Mississippi State has now won four of their last five meetings against Florida, which will likely be unranked once again when the new top 25 polls are released on Monday.

The Gators’ schedule does not get any easier going forward. Florida will face No. 22/19 Vanderbilt (Tuesday) and No. 16/14 Kentucky (Saturday) in consecutive home games next week. Both games will air live at 9 p.m. on ESPN, with College GameDay emanating from the Stephen C. O’Connell Center on Saturday.

Photo Credit: Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

7 Comments

  1. Ken says:

    Everytime it feels like they are getting it, they pull another one…This is one tough team to get excited for

  2. g8ter27 says:

    I hate to call a single player out but at the end Boynton flat out sucked! They should have pulled him out with the way he was playing, bad and selfishly.

  3. Gatorbuc15 says:

    Yeah they pretty much shot themselves in the foot today. You can’t win on the road in the SEC if you can’t make free throws. It’s just that simple.

  4. Basshole says:

    MSU does have talent, but this is a tough loss. Especially when you factor in that we were leading late in the game and couldn’t close it out. I still think this is an NCAA tourney team that could make a run to the Sweet 16, maybe Elite 8 or be one and done.

  5. Ken says:

    when you only make 47% free throws, especially on the road you wont in. Every time they seem like they are making progress playing as a team, they take a step back. Everytime it seems like they get it, they do silly things like today missing free throws…that is just flat out embarassing that they couldnt even hit 50% free throws

  6. dp says:

    Inconsistency, Inconsistency, Inconsistency. We still do not have that number one guy that can create his own shots and take over a game. I hope Rosario will be that guy next season.

  7. Mr2Bits says:

    Typical Florida game where we can’t close out games. Saw the same late collapse against Georgia and now this. Glad we ran the full court press to have it work, take the lead then stop running it. No real reason to get excited about this team as we’ll be lucky to get past the first round of the tourney. Being ranked 255th from the charity stripe will kill you.

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