Hogs fall flat at Florida, 88-73
Arkansas secures fourth straight Saturday sellout
Free throw struggles costing Hogs
Hogs need big receiver to emerge
Florida player and Arkansas native KeVaughn Allen came out of his month-long slump, of course, and put up a season-high 28 points as the Gators stomped the Razorbacks 88-73 Wednesday night in Gainesville.
In the previous four SEC games, Allen went for 7 against Texas A&M, 2 against Missouri, 3 against Mississippi State and 5 against Ole Miss. He had 20 points at halftime against the home state team he spurned for Florida three years ago.
Allen has now scored 28 and 21 points in his last two meetings against Arkansas and more importantly is 5-0 against the Hogs in his career. He was having the worst stretch of his career heading into this one and finished 8 of 12 shooting from the floor (66.7 percent), 6 of 7 from 3-point range (85.7 percent) and 6 of 6 from the free throw line.
Arkansas falls to 12-6 overall and 2-4 in the SEC. Since cracking the Top 25 at No. 23 overall, the Razorbacks have gone 1-4 in SEC games. The Hogs will look to put things together at home against Ole Miss for a 2:30 game on Saturday.
Jalen Hudson added 21 points on 6 of 12 shooting and pulled down 9 rebounds for Florida. The Gators were 28 of 58 shooting on the night (48.3 percent), 13 of 25 from 3-point range and 19 of 22 from the free throw line (86.4 percent).
Jaylen Barford scored a career high 28 points in the loss on 10 of 15 shooting, including 5 of 6 from beyond the arc. The Hogs were 29 of 66 from the floor (43.9 percent), 9 of 19 from downtown (47.4 percent) and were just 6 of 15 from the free throw line (40.0 percent). Arkansas is one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the country, having gone from No. 22 nationally last season to No. 306 this season in free throw percentage.
SECOND HALF RUNDOWN
Arkansas came out of the half down 15 points, 48-33, and scored the first two buckets of the second half to get the lead down to 10, 48-38 with 18:58 to play. The Hogs trailed the Gators by 11, 52-41, at the first media timeout with 15:29 to play.
The Razorbacks were hanging around but still hadn't trimmed the Florida lead under double-digits and trailed the Gators by 12, 62-50, at the second media timeout with 11:19 remaining in the game. Florida went from 55.6 percent on 15 of 27 shooting in the first half and was down to 5 of 14, 35.7 percent, at this point in the second half.
Arkansas finally got the lead down to single digits on a 3-pointer by C.J. Jones with 10:50 remaining. Jones had been struggling mightily in conference play but was 2 of 4 from downtown at that point. He finished 2 of 5, which made him 3 of 18 from 3-point range in SEC games.
Twenty-five seconds later it was back out to a 12-point lead on a 3-pointer by Allen, and the Hogs never got it to single digits again. The next 4 minutes, Arkansas was hanging around, down 10-12 points most of the time. But after a jumper by Barford made it 69-59 with 7:32 to play, Florida proceeded to score 10 points in just under 2 minutes to take their largest lead of the game at the time, 20 points, 79-59 with 4:33 to play. Thirty-two seconds later they had their largest lead, 21 points, by a score of 82-61. The final was 88-73, Florida.
FIRST HALF RUNDOWN
Florida jumped out to a 7-2 lead after a free throw by Keith Stone with 18:17 to play in the first half, but just a minute and 15 seconds later Arkansas had an 11-10 lead after a kick out 3-pointer from Anton Beard to Daryl Macon.
From the point it was 15-15 with 15 minutes to go on a jumper by Allen, the Gators outscored the Razorbacks 20-4 on a free throw by Kevarrius Hayes to put the Gators up 16 points with 7:53 to go, 35-19.
Allen got off to a 5 of 5 start, including 3 of 3 from downtown, for 15 points before his first miss with 5:59 to play in the first half. Florida led by as many as 18 points twice in the first half, and Hudson and Allen cobined for more points (35 on 10 of 15 shooting) than Arkansas had as a team in the first half (33 on 13 of 31 shooting).
ODDS & ENDS
Senior starting guard Anton Beard went down with an ankle injury with 5:05 left in the first half with the Hogs down 41-27. He did not return and could not put pressure on the ankle as he was helped off the court.