Tennessee knocks off No. 8 Florida
Feb 12, 2012 - 1:38 AMVideo
Jeronne Maymon recorded his seventh double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds while Skylar McBee and Jordan McRae netted 13 and 12 points, respectively, for Tennessee (13-12, 5-5 SEC), which moved to 1-7 in true road games this year. The Vols have won three consecutive games.
Bradley Beal had 16 points and eight rebounds for the Gators (19-6, 7-3), who had their 19-game home winning streak snapped and have lost back-to-back games for the first time this season.
"We didn't compete at all," Beal said. "Our defensive principles were bad again, we really weren't focused, we weren't getting any offense at all, we were jacking up shots."
After making just 6-of-27 attempts from beyond the arc in Tuesday's loss to top-ranked Kentucky, Florida once again struggled from three-point range, connecting on 11-of-29 tries.
The Vols, meanwhile, held a commanding 36-14 points in the paint advantage and outrebounded the Gators 36-30. Tennessee also scored the game's first 17 second-chance points and finished with a 17-8 discrepancy in the category.
Trailing 10-9, the Vols used a 15-2 run to give them a lead they never relinquished.
Golden started the surge with a layup and McRae capped it with a free throw to make it a 24-12 game midway through the opening 20 minutes. McRae netted six points during the run.
A bit later, Maymon's layup gave Tennessee its largest lead of 17, 39-22, with 2:30 left in the half.
Boynton's three-pointer with six seconds left pulled the Gators within 41-30 entering the break.
Florida, though, never made a run in the second half as the Vols held a double-digit advantage for 19:09 of the final 20 minutes.
After Erik Murphy's layup cut the gap to 10, 56-46, with 12:04 to play, Tennessee countered with a 6-0 spurt as Maymon's layup widened the disparity to 16 points with six minutes left.
Boynton's three-pointer at the final buzzer was the closest Florida got in the closing minutes.
Game Notes
Tennessee holds a 71-52 advantage in the all-time series...The Vols are 9-0 when McBee scores at least 10 points...The Vols swept the season series between the squads after Florida had won four straight over Tennessee coming into the season.
- TENNESSEE: 75
FLORIDA: 70
Final
Feb 11 6:15 PM - 134
roots - TENNESSEE: 41
FLORIDA: 30
Halftime
Feb 11 4:53 PM - TENNESSEE: 0
FLORIDA: 0
1st Half - 20:00
Feb 11 4:02 PM
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