Florida had a chance to win another game against an ACC team, this time in the SEC-ACC Challenge, but the Gators went belly up down the stretch and lost 82-71 against Wake Forest in Winston Salem, North Carolina.
That means the 4-3 Gators went 2-2 against the ACC and in this case, it was a bad run at the end of the game that killed the Gators.
Playing without starting center Micah Handlogten again and playing on the road, the Gators were in a tie game with less than four minutes to go and fell flat down the stretch.
Wake Forest is now 4-3. Here are the five biggest takeaways from this one.
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The stats tell a lot of the story, but Walter Clayton Jr. and Zyon Pullen combined to go 6-for-24 and only made one three. The offense that was so incredible against Baylor left the building in the last four minutes of the game. It wasn’t just shooting. It was everything.
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Maybe it was because he played 35 minutes, but while Kugel led Florida with 24 points, he also had four turnovers including a huge one late with Florida still in it. Kugel also finished with five rebounds, but nobody played particularly well defensively down the stretch.
Hey, we thought that was reserved for the football team.
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Florida committed 23 fouls in this game and almost all of them were on Wake Forest shot attempts. Fouls have been an issue all season and in this case, the Deacons made 20 of 29 free throws and Florida had multiple players dealing with foul problems.
Throw in a late-game technical and you see why this didn’t end well.
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The Gators led 36-32 after the first 20 minutes despite shooting 39% from the field and being outrebounded 24-19. Wake missed five of nine free throws and Riley Kugel looked like the guy that played so well in the final part of last season scoring 12 points.
Florida only turned it over five times in the half.
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In a game that was closer than the final score, the Gators allowed Wake to make its last four shots of the game and shoot 49%. Florida took a nine-point lead in the second half, but had no answers for Hunter Sallis (24 points), Andrew Carr (22 points) and Cameron Hildreth (18 points).
Wait until Wake Forest gets two starters back.
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