-Photo by Jordan McPherson/For the Miami Herald
With the Florida Gators holding onto a one-point lead against Tennessee with about eight minutes to play, KeVaughn Allen pushed down the court, took a pass from Chris Chiozza and drained a three-pointer that signaled the beginning of the end.
About 30 seconds later, the sophomore shooting guard hit another.
And then he hit a third about three minutes later to essentially shut the door on the Volunteers.
Behind Allen’s season-high 23 points, the No. 24 Gators defeated Tennessee 83-70 in the O’Connell Center for their fifth straight win.
“It feels good to see shots go in, but we really can’t just feed off the shot,” said Allen, who is averaging 17 points on 29-of-68 shooting (42.6 percent) over the win streak. “We’ve just got to feed off of our defensive energy and just try to make that into offense.”
The Gators (12-3, 3-0 Southeastern Conference) did that late against Tennessee.
In a game that featured six ties and 13 lead changes in the first 30 minutes, Florida broke out of a tough first half and pulled away late. The Gators outscored the Volunteers 23-11 in the final eight minutes. Allen scored 14 of those points. Overall, UF shot 66.7 percent from the field in the second half.
It was also a juxtaposition to Tuesday’s conference win against Ole Miss, in which Florida almost let the game slip away in the final minutes. UF also scored 25 points off 19 Tennessee turnovers and outscored the Volunteers 32-28 in the paint. Both teams shot 50 percent from the field.
“It was better than our last time out,” second-year UF coach Mike White said. “When shots are going in, of course, it’s only going to affect the score positively. Just really shot the ball well down the stretch.”
And Florida did pulled out the win despite early foul trouble from both of its main big men. John Egbunu and Kevarrius Hayes both had four fouls with more than nine minutes left to play and combined to score just five points in 21 total minutes. This forced White to rely third-string center Schuyler Rimmer late. The senior and Stanford transfer finished with three points and three rebounds in a season-high 16 minutes.
“He’s as much of a company guy as I’ve ever coached,” White said of Rimmer. “Whether he plays three minutes or eight minutes or has four DNPs in a row, he doesn’t care. It’s not about him. It’s about Florida basketball. It’s about winning. He’s a great teammate every day.”
Forward Justin Leon added a career-high 19 points and graduate transfer guard Canyon Barry added 15 off the bench.
Sophomore forward Admiral Schofield led Tennessee (8-7, 1-2 SEC) with 18 points off the bench before fouling out with 3:48 left to play.
Florida will next travel to Alabama for a 9 p.m. game on Tuesday before returning home for a noon tip against Georgia on Saturday.
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