A quick breakdown of Saturday's SEC semifinal come-from-behind victory against the Aggies.
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What Happened
Seldom-used sophom*ore guard Denzel Aberdeen came off the Florida bench to post career highs of 20 points and four steals and sparked a stunning comeback from 18 points down, as the sixth-seeded Gators rallied to overtake seventh-seeded Texas A&M with a 95-90 victory in the Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. The win put UF in its first SEC Tournament title game in a decade (more on that below) in just the second season under Coach Todd Golden. The Gators prevailed without making a field goal over the final 3:21, as the 11-point lead they built -- after a 29-point score difference from the first half -- proved enough because the Gators went 9-for-10 from the free-throw line down the stretch, with guards Zyon Pullin and Will Richard twice knocking down clutch pairs to hold off the desperate Aggies.Aberdeen, who averaged 2.5 points and 8.6 minutes through the season's first 34 games, came off the bench to hit six of his nine shots, including four of five from the 3-point line and all four of his free throws over 23 stellar minutes. Junior guard Walter Clayton Jr. had 16 points, including a killer 4-point play late in the second half on his fifth made 3 of the game, while Richard and Pullin both had 15 points each and combined for five 3s. Grad forward Tyrese Samuel had 16 points, six rebounds, five assists and two blocks. Make that five different UF players with at least 15 points. For the game, the Gators shot 49.1 percent, but it was their overall second half display -- on both ends of the floor -- that made the difference. UF hit 55 percent after intermission and held A&M to just 34.4, including only 2-for-8 from deep after the Aggies nailed six of 13 in the first half on the way to opening the big lead.The Aggies used a run of 20-6, while the Gators were missing eight of nine shots, to build an 18-point advantage, at 40-22, with just over five minutes to go in the first half. A&M would go on to shoot 50 percent in the first period, yet its lead was cut to eight, 50-42, at the break, in great part thanks to 12 points from Aberdeen. Four minutes into the second half, the Gators had closed to within in two and at the 13:48 mark took their first lead of the game on a Clayton 3-ball. Three minutes later, Florida was up six. Seven minutes later, the Gators were up 11, at 86-75, with 3:21 to go, but the Aggies hacked up the game with full-court pressure and lots of fouls trying to create extra possessions. They got as close as four, at 92-88, but UF free throws finished the comeback. Florida went 27 of 35 for the game (77.1 percent) in a near free-throw stalemate with A&M, which was 26 of 32 (81.3) in a game when 49 fouls were called. Aggies All-SEC guard Wade Taylor IV led all scorers with 30 points. For UF the win snapped a five-game losing streak in the series, dating to 2022, with the five losses coming by a combined five points. The comeback was the second-largest by the Gators under Golden, as well as the program's biggest in 57 all-time SEC Tournaments.
What it Means
Not only will the Gators play for their first SEC Tournament championship in 10 years, but they'll do so with another Quadrant 1 victory (the second in as many days) rolled into their NCAA Tournament resume, with a chance at a third. Read on.
In the Spotlight
Take a bow, Denzel. He had a really good future ahead of him in this program, but the Florida fans might not have known it. Now they do.
Staggering Statistic
UF will play a fourth game in four days for the first time since Dec. 14-17, 1942 when the Gators (and the rest of the league, due to World War II) played a non-conventional schedule that had them at Mississippi State for two games in two days and at Ole Miss for two more after that.
Up Next
Florida (24-10) will face 12th-ranked and fourth-seeded Auburn (26-7), a 73-66 winner over No. 9-seed Mississippi State in the early semifinal, for the 2024 SEC Tournament championship. The game, set for a 1 p.m. (ET) tip-off, will mark the Gators' first appearance in the title game since the 2014 team that swept through the conference season a perfect 18-0, then swept through the tournament with wins over Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky at the Georgia Dome for the fourth crown in program history. The title-game showdown will pit Golden against one of his mentors, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, who gave Golden his first high-major assistant coach position in 2016.
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