JACKSONVILLE - With 7:11 left in the first half, Jai Lucas told to his teammates to "wake up" as they were trailing 19-11.
Then with 16:30 remaining in the game, Lucas screamed Blet?s goC as UF started inching back at 29-23.
Then with 6:19 to go, he jogged to the sidelines clapping, and he finally had good reason to cheer as UF led 46-43.
In a game where Coach Billy Donovan wasn?t sure if he had ever seen a worse shooting performance in his 12-year UF tenure, the Gators squeaked out a come-from-behind 52-49 win against Georgia Southern Saturday afternoon at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.
UF (10-1) finished the day a putrid 25 percent from the field, had just 13 field goals and only six players scored for the Gators. UF?s starting frontcourt of Dan Werner and Marreese Speights were just 3 for 15 in the first half as they missed many point-blank layups, and the Gators trailed by as many as 10 in the opening half. So thank goodness for free throws, as UF made 24 of 30 of them.
BWe won the game in the second half from the free-throw line, and we won it by getting some stops,C Donovan said. BWe were forcing them to foul us.C
The biggest free throws came from freshman Nick Calathes. Down 50-49 with 36 seconds left the Lake Howell High grad stepped to the line and swished two of them to put Florida up for good. Calathes said he hasn?t missed any clutch free throws since his AAU days, and that stayed true Saturday. Calathes nailed all 11 of his shots from the line.
BYou?ve practiced them and shot 1,000 of them,C Calathes said. BI?ve been playing basketball since I was 3. I don?t think about it if it?s a game winner or not. C
That was after the yelling. Because, according to Werner, there was definitely some yelling by Donovan at halftime.
And for Werner, that worked. Despite the point-blank misses, the sophomore forward had the best game of his career against the Eagles (7-2). Werner finished with 20 points (16 in the second half), 14 rebounds and blocked Georgia Southern guard Willie Powers? last second tying 3-pointer.
BDan Werner was a scorer, a shooter - all this other stuff,C Donovan said. BBut he?s reinvented himself into this hard-nosed, tough, gritty guy. Al Horford had to reinvent himself. So did Taurean Green. All the really, really good players find a way to reinvent themselves.C
