It took them four years of scratching and clawing, but on Senior Night at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL, the No. 14 Florida Gators (23-6, 12-3 SEC) won at least a share of the Southeastern Conference regular season title for the first time since 2007 by thrashing the Alabama Crimson Tide (19-10, 11-4 SEC) 78-51.

Fittingly enough, it was Florida’s three seniors – redshirt center Vernon Macklin and forwards Chandler Parsons and Alex Tyus – who led the way for the Gators’ romp. The trio combined to score 50 of UF’s 78 team points with Macklin and Parsons each accounting for 19. Macklin also led Florida with a game-high 11 rebounds; Tyus scored 12 and gave a sterling effort on the glass with nine boards.

The Gators played with passion and intensity the entire game, but one would not get that impression by looking at the first half box score. Florida started the game 3-for-19 from the field and 0-for-10 from downtown but led Alabama nearly the entire first half.

UF closed the half with back-to-back three-pointers from sophomore guard Kenny Boynton to knot it up at 30 even though they finished 11-of-30 from the floor, 2-of-12 from three and 6-of-12 from the free throw line. UA shot the ball better but had eight fewer attempts due to turning the ball over 10 times.

Coming out of the break, the Gators started hot with a 7-2 run to go up five. After some back-and-forth action, Florida put their foot on the gas and refused to let up. UF exploded on a 28-6 run over almost 10 minutes that included a flurry of three-pointers from Boynton, Parsons and junior point guard Erving Walker.

The Gators ended up hitting twice as many shots as the Crimson Tide in the second half (18-9), went 18-for-26 overall in the later portion of the game and took a game-high 27-point lead in the final few minutes of action.

Florida head coach Billy Donovan pulled Macklin and Parsons to standing ovations with 1:23 to go and called a timeout for Tyus to leave the court with a minute left. He then substituted redshirt junior F Adam Allen, who had not stepped on the court in three years and is retiring after the season, to run out the final 25 seconds of the clock.

Boynton joined the seniors with a stellar offensive effort including 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc to go along with six assists. Walker added eight points and seven dimes even though he did not hit his first shot until well into the second half.

Guard Trevor Releford led Alabama in scoring with 17 points, while star Fs JaMychael Green and Tony Mitchell combined for 24 points and 17 rebounds (11 offensive).

UF hopes to keep the SEC title to themselves but first must face No. 20/21 Vanderbilt on the road Saturday at 6 p.m. The game will air live on ESPN. UA will also head on the road to face Georgia on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Photo Credit: Phil Sandlin/Associated Press

Tags: Adam Allen, Alabama Crimson Tide, Alex Tyus, Billy Donovan, Chandler Parsons, Erving Walker, JaMychael Green, Kenny Boynton, O'Connell Center, SEC, Tony Mitchell, Trevor Releford, Vernon Macklin

Location: Stephen C. O’Connell Center – Gainesville, FL [Capacity: 12,000]
Time: 7:00 p.m. (ET)

TV: ESPNU
Online Video: N/A
Online Audio: Yahoo!
Live Updates: @OnlyGators

Odds: Florida -6; O/U 125.5

HISTORY and STREAKS

» Alabama leads the all-time series against Florida 73-59, but the Gators have beat the Crimson Tide in 15 of the last 18 contests dating back to 1999. Florida defeated Alabama 66-65 in Tuscaloosa last season, making Donovan 16-5 all-time against the Crimson Tide (8-0 at home).
» The Gators are 4-1 against the SEC West this season after going an undefeated 6-0 against the division last year.
» Florida has won 14 of its last 17 games with 12 victories against RPI top 100 teams; their six-game winning streak was snapped Saturday by Kentucky.
» Alabama has also won 14 of its last 17 games and has only allowed six opponents to score more than 60 points over that stretch.
» UF and UA, both No. 1 seeds in the 2011 SEC Tournament, are squaring off Tuesday with the victor winning the overall SEC regular season title.
» The Gators are 19-1 (8-0 SEC) when holding an opponent under 70 points this year.
» Florida is 13-3 at home this year and can reach 14 wins in the O’Dome for the seventh time in Donovan’s 15-year UF career.
» The Gators, struggling all season from the line, are hitting 73.6 percent of their attempts from the charity stripe over the last six games.
» Florida is 9-2 when senior forward Chandler Parsons takes 10+ shots from the field. He moved into the top 20 in school history in scoring (1,345 points) with 15 points on Saturday. He is also one of only three active players in Division I college basketball with over 1,300 points, 750 rebounds, 300 assists and 100 steals.
» Gators junior point guard Erving Walker, with 195 three-pointers, is sixth all-time at UF. He is three treys away from moving into the top five.
» Florida has reached 20+ wins for the 13th consecutive season, the longest active streak in the SEC. The Gators have also reached 10 wins in league play for the ninth time in the last 13 years and first time since 2007 (13-3).
» The Crimson Tide are led by Grant, a former assistant under Donovan, who has compiled a 112-49 mark in five years as a head coach (36-24 at current job).
» Florida bests Alabama in all four major national statistical categories. The Gators top the Crimson Tide in points per game 70.8-67.6 (120th-214th), rebounds per game 37.8-37.2 (46th-65th), assists per game 13.8-12.9 (115th-176th) and field goal percentage .457-.452 (80th-104th). Alabama is one of the few teams in the SEC that plays better defense than Florida, limiting opponents to 58.2 points and .373 shooting on the season (vs. 62.2 and .423). UF ranks 12th in RPI (.6333) and eighth in strength of schedule nationally compared to UA being 87th (.5487) and 175th, respectively.

SENIOR DAY

The Gators’ 2010-11 senior class will graduate with a (as of press time) 92-42 all-time record including a SEC East title and two NCAA Tournament appearances. Allen, who has suffered from chronic knee problems, has not played since April 1, 2008 and will depart the program one year early. Macklin was around for 43 of those wins, joining the team as a transfer and only playing two seasons after redshirting. Parsons is in the top 20 in school history in scoring, and Tyus was just the fifth player under Donovan to reach 500 career field goals. Parsons also won SEC Player of the Week and Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week in his senior season.

* F Adam Allen – #14 – Milton, Fla. [redshirt junior]
Career at UF (2007-08): 144 points, 29 rebounds, 15 assists, six steals, three blocks

* C Vernon Macklin – #32 – Portsmouth, Va. [redshirt senior]
Career at UF (2009-11): 673 points, 355 rebounds, 46 assists, 29 steals, 52 blocks

* F Chandler Parsons – #25 – Casselberry, Fla. [senior]
Career at UF (2007-11): 1,345 points, 787 rebounds, 303 assists, 121 steals, 37 blocks

* F Alex Tyus – #23 – St. Louis, Mo. [senior]
Career at UF (2007-11): 1,243 points, 692 rebounds, 72 assists, 51 steals, 107 blocks

KEEP AN EYE ON…

» Parsons…who is back to averaging double-digit points (11.1) while leading the Gators with 7.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. Parsons ranks No. 1 among active SEC players in rebounds (787), No. 3 in points (1,345) and assists (303) and No. 4 steals (121). At one point he notched three-straight double-doubles and now has six this year.
» Walker…who is leading his team in scoring with 14.6 points per game and leading the backcourt in both field goal percentage (.415) and three-point percentage (.374). Walker also leads Florida in turnovers (69) and became the 47th player in school history to score 1,000 points earlier this season.
» Redshirt senior center Vernon Macklin…who is shooting a team-best 56.9 percent from the floor this season as a starter with most of his buckets coming inside the paint. He averages 11.2 points and 6.0 rebounds a game while being a major presence for UF.
» Sophomore guard Kenny Boynton…who is arguably the Gators’ most talented player but is struggling with consistency shooting the ball. Boynton is only hitting 37.0 percent from the field and 31.1 percent from beyond the arc; however, he is second in scoring with 13.5 points per game and makes a team-high 83.5 percent of his free throws. He is also shooting 90.6 percent from the line (48-of-53) in SEC play.
» Senior F Alex Tyus…who is averaging career-lows in points, rebounds and field goal percentage as a starter. Tyus became just the fifth player under Donovan to reach 500 career field goals, accomplishing the feat two weeks ago against Vanderbilt.
» Freshmen PG Scottie Wilbekin and C Patric Young…who are Florida’s primary reserves each averaging over 17 minutes per game. Wilbekin, in relief of Walker, leads UF in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.25:1), while Young averages 3.2 points and 3.4 boards.
» Alabama Fs JaMychal Green and Tony Mitchell who each shoot better than .500 from the floor while averaging nearly 16 points and seven boards per game. The duo is responsible for the vast majority of the Crimson Tide’s points and rebounds this season.

Tags: Alex Tyus, Anthony Grant, Billy Donovan, Chandler Parsons, Erving Walker, JaMychal Green, O'Connell Center, SEC, Tony Mitchell, Vernon Macklin

It took senior forward Dan Werner strongly batting away an in bounds toss with 3.5 seconds remaining on the clock to propel the Florida Gators (16-6, 5-3 SEC) to a 66-65 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide (13-9, 3-5 SEC) on the road at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, AL.

Though Werner made a heads-up play in the final seconds, he preceded it with a major mistake that could have cost his team the game. The Gators were only up four with 1:09 remaining in the game when he inexplicably fouled Crimson Tide guard Anthony Brock to allow Alabama to continue its 9-2 run and cut Florida’s lead to one. A runner by G Mikhail Torrance gave the Tide a 65-64 lead with only 44 seconds left, but a clutch floater by Gators sophomore point guard Erving Walker with nine tickets left on the clock ended up being the game-winning basket.

Read the rest of OGGOA’s Florida at Alabama game story after the jump!
Continue Reading » Walker floats Gators to 66-65 win over Tide

Tags: Alabama Crimson Tide, Alex Tyus, Anthony Brock, Anthony Grant, Billy Donovan, Coleman Coliseum, Dan Werner, Erving Walker, JaMychal Green, Kenny Boynton, Mikhail Torrance, Tony Mitchell