Georgia 72, Florida 69: Gators cough up lead late, crumble in overtime

The Florida Gators scored only in brief spurts, struggled to defend competently for pivotal stretches, and failed to shut down their foe’s interior game on Wednesday.

Also, they lost — but you knew that, right?

The Gators’ 72-69 loss to Georgia — in overtime, this time — had all the hallmarks of their worst losses this year.

Not enough three-point shooting? Check. The Gators were just 9-for-22 on the night, and while that’s not “bad” for most teams, and is actually reflective of a good percentage, it was fatal for the Gators, so dependent on getting points from distance.

Woeful interior defense? Yup. Florida gave up 23 points and 10 boards to Yante Maten, and also allowed a staggering 13 offensive rebounds, yielding five of them to Maten and another three to Derek Ogbeide.

A long, miserable stretch of poor offense? Unquestionably. Florida scored nine points in the final 10:03 of play, and let a 11-point lead evaporate in part by allowing Maten to make two threes in the final 20 seconds of play.

You could be forgiven for forgetting or not caring at all that Florida got 19 points from each of KeVaughn Allen and Egor Koulechov, and a surprising 13 from Mike Okauru — who disappeared from the floor down the stretch despite being Florida’s most efficient scorer on the night — and that Chris Chiozza and Jalen Hudson combined for five points.

Florida would do well to forget this game, too.

And the Gators would also do well to just stop doing this.

(See also.)