{"id":191024,"date":"2026-03-14T02:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T02:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/191024\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T02:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T02:54:13","slug":"gators-hold-off-kentucky-to-advance-to-sec-tournament-semifinals-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/191024\/","title":{"rendered":"Gators hold off Kentucky to advance to SEC tournament semifinals \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida held off a second-half surge by Kentucky for the second time in seven days to advance to the SEC tournament semifinals and extend the No. 4 Gators\u2019 winning streak<\/a> to 12 games.<\/p>\n

A 3-pointer and steal by shooting guard Xavian Lee<\/a> during the final 50 seconds proved the difference in a 71-63 win that set up a meeting with No. 22 Vanderbilt (25-7) at 1 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we were a little rusty,\u201d UF coach Todd Golden said. \u201cIt was kind of the same story each of the three times we played these guys this year. Got up big \u2026\u00a0 had an opportunity to extend to a point where they couldn\u2019t get back in the ballgame. We got sloppy with the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Florida guard Denzel Aberdeen<\/a>, who transferred last spring after Lee left Princeton for UF, led a late charge by the Wildcats after Florida had controlled much of the game.<\/p>\n

Three free throws by Kentucky\u2019s Colin Chandler, who was fouled by point guard Boogie Fland beyond the arc, cut Florida lead to 62-54 with 3:13 to go. The Gators\u2019 sophomore transfer then committed a charge on Aberdeen.<\/p>\n

The former Orlando Phillips standout hit sank free throws to trim Florida\u2019s advantage to 62-56 \u2014 the closest Kentucky had been since more than eight minutes remained in the first half.<\/p>\n

Aberdeen followed two free throws by All-SEC forward Thomas Haugh with a layup. But the 6-foot-9, 215-pound Haugh drained a turnaround jumper, only the second field goal Friday by his teams\u2019 leading scorer this season, who finished with 13 points.<\/p>\n

Aberdeen answered with a 3-pointer to make it 66-61 with 1:21 remaining, but Lee responded with his own 3 \u2014 and the Gators\u2019 only field goal beyond the arc in the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe stepped up and hit a dagger,\u201d Golden said.<\/p>\n

The 6-4 Lee then stole the ball from the 6-5 Aberdeen in the corner and made 1 of 2 free throws to make it 70-61, effectively icing the game for Florida (26-6) despite a woeful second-half offensive effort.<\/p>\n

\"BoogieBoogie Fland (0) of the Florida Gators and Collin Chandler (5) of the Kentucky Wildcats battle for the ball during the Gators’ victory in the SEC tournament quarterfinals Friday at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. (Carly Mackler\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Gators shot just 29.2% after intermission and suffered a 10-minute stretch without a field goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been shooting the ball really well. We just haven\u2019t played in a week,\u201d Golden said. \u201cI think it will take us a little bit of time to get back in that rhythm and flow we had ending the regular season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s defense and rebounding kept the Wildcats (21-13) in check enough throughout the game to offset poor shooting and sloppy performance featuring 18 turnovers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe turnovers we need to fix,\u201d Haugh said. \u201cWe had that problem a little bit in the beginning of the year. We fixed it. We have to get back to playing who we are. We don\u2019t turn the ball over like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty uncommon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kentucky failed to capitalize. The Wildcats shot 35.6% Friday, was outrebounded 50-29 and allowed 21 second-chance points while managing just eight.<\/p>\n

Florida power forward Alex Condon also continued his recent surge. He finished with a game-high 22 points, including the Gators\u2019 initial eight of the second half as they appeared to take command of the Wildcats, who were playing their third game in three days.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-11, 236-pound Aussie finished 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 8-of-10 from the foul line during his fifth 20-point effort in the past seven games. Condon also recorded 10 rebounds for his 16th career double-double \u2014 and seventh this season.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s defense set the tone early on. The Gators staked a 18-8 lead seven minutes into the game after four steals, including three by center Rueben Chinleyu \u2014 the SEC\u2019s Defensive Player of the Year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After a layup by Urban Klavzar made it 20-10, Kentucky scored 10 straight points including eight in 44 seconds featuring two Mouhaned Dioubate 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

Seeking its second straight SEC tournament title, Todd Golden\u2019s squad built a comfortable lead behind a 13-0 first-half run, beginning with consecutive jumpers by Fland and ending with his 3-pointer for a 33-20 lead with 3:57 remaining in the first half.<\/p>\n

Kentucky trailed 37-28 at halftime after two free throws by Aberdeen, who led the Wildcats with 17 points. The Gators built the lead to as many as 17 points and led 54-38 with 11:02 to go before Kentucky steadily chipped away and got back into the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a great job the first, let\u2019s say, 27 minutes of the game,\u201d Golden said. \u201cBut just started not doing a good enough job taking care of the ball. Once they got behind, the last 10 or so minutes, we were kind of playing not to lose. They were playing free with no pressure because there was none left at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida had only once faced the same team in consecutive games, losing twice to Vanderbilt in 2017. The Gators last beat Kentucky three times in the same season in 2014 amid a 30-game winning streak that ended with a Final Four loss to eventual national UConn.<\/p>\n

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida held off a second-half surge by Kentucky for the second time in seven days to advance to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,2530,2496,114,139,141,140,76046,110],"class_list":["post-191024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-gainesville","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}