Well, that was ugly. Again.
For the second year in a row, the Vols went down to Gainesville and got their doors blown off, this time falling to the defending national champion Gators 91-67.
Tennessee was led in scoring by Nate Ament with 17 points. Ja’Kobi Gillespie had 12, and Jaylen Carey added 12 off the bench.
The story of the day was turnovers and physicality, and Tennessee failed on both of them substantially. Florida controlled the glass 41-30, and they had the edge in turnovers, with 10 to Tennessee’s 18.
And it was the first half where this game got away from Tennessee based on pure sloppiness and a hot streak by the Gators on the offensive end.
With the game tied at 26 with under four minutes left in the first half, the Gators went on a 15-2 run to end the frame. Florida’s Boogie Fland splashed home a three for the lead, and after two Tennessee turnovers, he added another three and a layup for a 36-28 lead. Then, after a Bishop Boswell turnover, Fland dished it to Urban Klavzar for a long three for a double-digit lead and added a layup for the final points of the half.
Fland finished with 29 points on 9-13 shooting and did Tennessee in on that run. Boswell struggled in particular that half, accounting for five of Tennessee’s 12 turnovers.
The second half was more of the same. Florida jumped to a 48-30 lead, and after Tennessee showed a tad bit of fight to get to 50-35, Florida pushed the lead to 20 for the first time at 55-35 on another Klavzar three, and that would be that. Tennessee jockeyed around the 17-22 point range as far as deficit for most of the rest of the game, never going on any kind of run to threaten to get back into it.
Up next is a home clash with Texas A&M on Tuesday at 7:00 pm ET.