Alabama 68, Florida 50: Gators rolled by relentless Tide in second half

At halftime, the Florida Gators had forced 14 turnovers — 14! — and built a six-point lead over Alabama that really could have been far, far larger.

Minutes after intermission ended, and Alabama had staged an 8-0 run to finish the portion of the game in which Florida would lead by more than a single possession, the Gators were as lost as they have been this year.

They would lose, 68-50, and they would look as bad as they have in doing so.

Alabama shot nearly 60 percent from the floor, and those turnovers dried up in the second half — the Crimson Tide finished with 19, but also forced 12 from a usually very careful Florida outfit. Chris Chiozza committed just two of them, but also scored just four points and had just four assists. Jalen Hudson had five — and scored just six points in a rare start.

KeVaughn Allen (16 points), Egor Koulechov (11), and Keith Stone (12) all reached double figures in scoring for the Gators, but none made more than half of his shots — a stark contrast to Alabama getting all but one of its seven players to make a shot over that threshold.

And the lone exception? Collin Sexton, whose 7-for-15 day still translated to 17 points, and came with eight rebounds and six assists.

Florida was outrebounded 43-25. Florida went 5-for-24 from three. Florida was outscored 41-17 from halftime onward, and scored just seven points — seven! — in the final 11:59 of action. Florida was awful, as awful as it can be — and Alabama, which ran and ran and ran, slicing through the Gators’ porous transition defense and cutting into the lane, was good.

These Gators are capable of being good, too — seven days ago, they were, and seven days before that, they were in a completely different way. But consistency bedevils this outfit, and it is sorely lacking as Florida approaches the long, hard back stretch of SEC play.