OKLAHOMA CITY — Before tipping off the first round of the NCAA Tournament, BYU point guard Jimmer Fredette asked Chandler Parsons for a small favor.
“No game-winning shots tonight,” Fredette said. “It was kind of just a little joke, just friendly competition.”
Parsons, whose two game-winners in January were among the highlights of Florida’s season, had a chance to do exactly what Fredette feared at the end of regulation Thursday afternoon in the Ford Center.
The junior forward missed a last-second turnaround jumper over Michael Loyd Jr. with the game tied at 75 to end regulation. Freshman guard Kenny Boynton missed on the final possession in overtime, and the Gators (21-13) ended their season with a 99-92 double-overtime loss to the Cougars (30-5).
“I felt like I had a good look and shot it,” said Parsons, who finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. “I thought it was going to go down. It rode out. It happens. I’d like to have the shot again.”
Boynton, who finished with 27 points on 8-of-16 shooting, was forced into a long, contested three-pointer that fell far short, and senior forward Dan Werner’s attempted tip-in was off.
“I wasn’t really sure how much time was left so I just tried to tip it in,” Werner said after his final game at UF. “Looking back, I probably should have tried to grab it, but I didn’t think I could catch it, so I just tried to get a fingertip on it and get it up to the rim.”
In the second overtime, the Gators lost their most effective scorer — Boynton fouled out — and were clearly too worn down to keep up with the Cougars.
“We had a hard time scoring because of fatigue,” UF coach Billy Donovan said. “I didn’t think their depth was a factor in the first 40 minutes, but as we got to the last 10 minutes and Boynton fouled out, we were trying to hang on physically.”
Boynton was given the tall order of guarding Fredette, and chasing around BYU’s top scorer tired out Boynton, who still had one of his best offensive games of the season.
Although Boynton kept up with Fredette fairly well, the junior guard was as good as advertised and finished with 37 points on 13-of-26 shooting.
The unexpected star of the day was Loyd, who was averaging 4.6 points per game before going off for 26 points on 7-of-10 shooting Thursday. He helped BYU take the lead at the end of the first half by coming off the bench and scoring 10 straight points.
The Cougars extended their lead to as many as 13 points in the second half, but the Gators were able to overcome that deficit before running out of gas in the second overtime.
The loss ends UF’s season earlier than the team would have liked, but Donovan said he was pleased with the way his team competed, as his players showed no signs of complacency after getting back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years.
“One of the most disappointing things is your players to walk off the court feeling like they could have given more,” Donovan said. “And these guys, I don’t think, could have given any more than they had physically.”
