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Thursday, March 28, 2024
<p>Jacob Kurtz dribbles the ball during Florida’s 85-47 win against Yale in the O’Connell Center.&nbsp;</p>

Jacob Kurtz dribbles the ball during Florida’s 85-47 win against Yale in the O’Connell Center. 

The Gators battled through a game of catch-up on Saturday in Athens but Florida (10-7, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) couldn’t quite manage to catch-up to Georgia (11-5, 2-2 SEC). The Gators fell to the Bulldogs 73-61 at Stegeman Coliseum.

Florida was just one game away from extending their SEC winning streak to 25 but the Bulldogs held them off and dealt Florida’s its’ first SEC loss since the 2013 SEC Tournament championship 66-63 loss against Ole Miss. The last time the Bulldogs defeated Florida 76-62 on Feb. 25, 2012 in Athens, Georgia.

Though Florida managed to end the first half trailing Georgia by just five points, once again the Gators struggled to show up to the second.

The Bulldogs led by as many as 15 twice in the second half—the largest lead of the game.

Florida spent about a minute of the entire game tied with Georgia, but the rest the 39 minutes the Gators were chasing the Dawgs tirelessly and to no avail.

Florida’s starters sophomore guard Kasey Hill, freshman forward Devin Robinson, junior forward Dorian Finney Smith, freshman guard Chris Chiozza and sophomore center Chris Walker combined to contribute 36 points while Georgia’s put up 61 points—equal to Florida’s game total.

Though Florida’s bench managed to score 25 points, more than double of the 12 points Georgia’s bench put down, it wasn’t enough compared to the 16 points each that Georgia starters Marcus Thornton and Kenny Gaines managed.

Florida committed a season high 19 turnovers, of which Georgia was able to score 16 points off.

“A lot of them came from back-to-back possessions, which hurt us,” said senior forward Jacob Kurtz in a post-game press conference.

Georgia shot over 53 percent from the field, free throw line and outside the arc while Florida just managed a 50 percent from the field and only 31.3 percent from three-point range.

Fouls, a recurring issue for the Gators, came into play on Saturday afternoon. Florida’s 19 personal fouls, of which Walker and Hill led with four each, allowed Georgia to shoot 29 free throws—and make 19.

Michael Frazier three fouls weren’t enough to bench him early on, yet he was noticeably missing from most of Florida’s second half. He played just 23 minutes on Saturday, 11 of which were in the second half.

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In a post post-game press conference, Donovan said the reason both Frazier and Finney-Smith’s minutes were limited in the second half was because he was “searching for the lineup to get a spark.”

Donovan’s search turned up no-such-luck and the Gators boarded the bus back to Gainesville defeated by an SEC opponent for the first time in 682 days.

Follow Erica A. Hernandez on Twitter @EricaAlyssa

Jacob Kurtz dribbles the ball during Florida’s 85-47 win against Yale in the O’Connell Center. 

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