After taking a 57-50 lead against Kentucky with 7:36 left, Florida went scoreless for the remainder of the contest.
The Gators shot 0 of 11 and committed five turnovers during the game’s final stretch, as the Wildcats (21-10, 12-6 SEC) finished the game on an 11-0 run to defeat No. 11 Florida (24-6, 14-4 SEC) 61-57 on Saturday afternoon in Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
“Offensively, someone’s got to make a shot,” coach Billy Donovan said. “You can’t just go 7 minutes without scoring and expect to win the game on the road.”
With the contest tied 31-31 at halftime, Kentucky opened the second half on an 11-3 run. But Florida responded by outscoring UK 23-8 during an 8-minute stretch.
From there, a handful of poor decisions on the offensive end plagued UF.
After guard Mike Rosario committed his fourth turnover on an errant pass intended for point guard Scottie Wilbekin — which led to a fastbreak slam by UK guard Archie Goodwin — Donovan subbed Rosario out of the game for the final 4:33.
Goodwin propelled the Wildcats’ run, scoring 6 of UK’s final 11 points.
With the game tied 57-57 with 3:36 left, Wilbekin heaved a lob pass that sailed over forward Casey Prather’s hands.
“You cannot throw a lefty pass like that,” Donovan said. “You have to have more discipline.”
Center Patric Young received a bounce pass from forward Erik Murphy but missed a reverse layup with 2:52 left.
Prather missed a jumper but gathered the offensive rebound at the 1:50 mark. He couldn’t convert in the post on his second try.
With Florida down 58-57 with 56 seconds remaining, Wilbekin maneuvered his way into the lane, taking an off-balance floater over 7-foot center Willie Cauley-Stein. Following a battle for the rebound, Cauley-Stein came down with the ball.
After Goodwin was fouled by Prather and made 1 of 2 free throws, UF had an opportunity to tie it up. But Kenny Boynton’s jumper from the right wing with 15 seconds left could not find net. The ball went out of bounds off of Young after an attempt for a rebound.
Florida then intentionally fouled Wildcats guard Julius Mays with 9.4 seconds left. Mays hit both of his free throws to put the game out of reach for the Gators.
Murphy led UF with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting and 11 rebounds.
Young scored 10 points but grabbed only two boards. For the contest, Kentucky outrebounded Florida 40-34.
“We’ve got to get some more rebounding out of our frontcourt,” Donovan said. “We’re not getting enough numbers from them.”
Florida clinched the SEC regular-season title on Wednesday with a 66-40 home win against Vanderbilt on Senior Night. But after celebrating the achievement by cutting the nets in the O’Connell Center, Florida looked sluggish in the early minutes Saturday.
UK opened on an 11-2 run as Florida shot 2 of 11 to start the game.
“I was discouraged personally by the way we started,” Donovan said. “Being down 11-2 and knowing that Kentucky was going to come out and play with that energy, and us not being ready, I must have not done a very good job preparing them to get ready the way we came out.”
Florida shot 40 percent from the field and 5 of 14 from behind the arc.
The Gators have not won in Rupp Arena since 2007.
UF, which has the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament locked up, will play Friday at 1 p.m. against the No. 8 or No. 9 seed in the conference.
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
Forward Erik Murphy passes the ball during Florida’s 77-44 win against Georgia on Jan. 9 in the O’Connell Center. Murphy scored 17 points in Florida's 61-57 loss at Kentucky on Saturday.
