Florida fights off, eventually falls to Xavier 76-64

Coming off of a tough conference loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks on Wednesday, the Florida Gators (17-8) hoped to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive with a win in a rare late season out-of-conference game against the Xavier Musketeers (17-7). While the Gators did their best to fend off the Musketeers throughout the game, the overwhelming size and speed of their opponent coupled with their own inconsistency would make their efforts moot in the end Saturday night in Gainesville, FL, at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

Read the complete and detailed OGGOA game story after the jump!

Florida took their first lead of the game early at 6-5, but Xavier sliced up the Gators defense and used a 10-0 run to go up 11 with 13:49 to go in the first half. A similar 11-3 run put the Musketeers ahead a game-high 16 points with 7:12 remaining on the clock. After going back-and-forth for a few minutes, Florida mounted their first major run of the game in the final minutes of the first half, outscoring Xavier 11-2 to cut their deficit to seven and provide the Gators with some momentum at halftime.

That momentum held as Florida freshman guard Kenny Boynton scored five straight points to cut the Gators’ deficit to four at 16:25. UF then took off on a 14-3 run, capped with a one-handed dunk by redshirt junior center Vernon Macklin to take their first lead since 6-5 at 17:01 in the first half. Florida outscored Xavier 27-11 through halftime to overcome a game-high 16-point deficit before the game began going back-and-forth.

The Musketeers retook the lead at 9:25 and followed up with an explosive 12-2 run to go back up eight with 7:35 remaining. However, the Gators would fight back once again and cut their deficit to three on the heels of a controlled trey from junior forward Chandler Parsons at 3:45. Xavier responded with a 10-1 run of their own, going back up 12 with a minute to go and holding on for the remainder of the contest.

“[Xavier’s] overall team speed, athleticism and strength was far better than ours,” head coach Billy Donovan said after the game. “They out (per)formed us, coached us, played us – everything today. […] I feel bad for our guys sometimes. Depth wise, we only really are playing six-and-a-half, seven guys. We certainly have some physical limitations and some depth limitations. I’m asking them to do everything […] and the room for error is maybe not what it has been in the past. […] I would say that there’s definitely a fatigue level. It could it be mental fatigue, it could it be mental fatigue, I don’t know.”

Parsons led the Gators with 15 points while Macklin capitalized with a team-high 10 boards and 12 points. Boynton also contributed 12 points and sophomore point guard Erving Walker shot only 3-for-10 from the field and 1-for-5 from downtown for 11 points of his own.

For the Musketeers, C Jason Love was dominant in the first half, scoring 14 of his game-high 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting. He finished 9-for-12 and added 10 rebounds to his double-double performance. F Jamel McLean gave Xavier a game-high 15 rebounds while guard Jordan Crawford added a solid 18 points.

The best team in the Atlantic 10 from behind the arc, the Musketeers only went 4-for-20 from downtown. Xavier outrebounded the Florida 40-27 and earned six more offensive boards. The Gators continued to struggle from the free throw line, finishing 12-for-23 as a team with Macklin going 0-for-5.

Florida gets five days off after their back-to-back losses before returning to action and trying to save their season against the Auburn Tigers on Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. The game will air live on ESPN.