With Vanderbilt guard Matthew Fisher-Davis guarding him at the hip, KeVaughn Allen tossed up a prayer from the right corner as the final seconds melted off the clock in Florida’s battle with the Commodores.
It clanked off the side of the rim.
The 6-foot-2 guard sat sprawled across the floor in disappointment as Vanderbilt guard Riley LaChance dribbled to the other end of the court as the final buzzer whined throughout Exactech Arena.
And despite a season-high 29 points on 10-for-18 shooting from Allen, Vanderbilt (9-10, 3-4 SEC) held on to defeat the No. 19 Gators (14-5, 5-2 SEC) 68-66 on Saturday afternoon in front of 10,523 stunned fans in the O’Connell Center.
Florida couldn’t stop the Commodores’ primary scorers when it counted.
“(Fisher-Davis is) a good player. He can shoot really well,” junior forward Devin Robinson said. “You just gotta key in on what he likes to do and take it from there.”
They didn’t do that.
Fisher-Davis led Vanderbilt with 19 points, including a pair of crucial second-half threes, and 7-foot-1 forward Luke Kornet chipped in 11 points and four rebounds.
Florida coach Mike White said communication issues on defense plagued his team the entire game.
“I don’t know what to do. I don’t. We gotta figure it out,” White said. “I’m at a complete loss.”
Early on, it was LaChance’s shooting that kept the Commodores in the hunt during the first half. The junior three-point specialist nailed three three-pointers during a back-and-forth frame.
Allen, who came off a one-point, three-shot performance against South Carolina on Wednesday, jump-started his offense with a three ball four minutes into the game. Junior forward Devin Robinson snagged one of Florida’s 12 offensive rebounds and kissed a shot off the glass as the opening half expired to give the Gators a 32-27 lead heading into the locker room.
But Fisher-Davis caught fire in the second half.
The 6-foot-5 junior led a 12-0 run in a nearly three-minute span to give Vanderbilt a 56-49 lead with about seven minutes to play.
A corner three-pointer by Allen tied the game at 56, though, and a steal and layup by graduate transfer Canyon Barry gave Florida a one-point lead with about four minutes left in the game.
Outside of Allen and Robinson, who had 12 points and six rebounds, no other UF player scored more than six points.
For the game, the Gators shot 45.6 percent and converted eight of their 25 threes.
And despite winning the rebounding battle 32-29 and forcing 13 turnovers, the Gators are staring at a two-game losing streak with a 9 p.m. tip in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Wednesday.
“There’s a fork in the road here,” White said. “Do we panic? Do we point fingers? Do we blame each other? Or do we simply man up.”
Contact Ray Boone at rboone@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @rboone1994.
UF guard KeVaughn Allen attempts to shoot over LSU’s Elbert Robinson III during Florida’s 68-62 win over LSU on Jan. 9, 2016, in the O’Connell Center.
