Vanderbilt suffered its 12th-consecutive loss, falling 66-57 to Florida at the O'Connell Center in Gainesville, Fla., on Wednesday evening.
Guard Aaron Nesmith scored a career--high 26 for VU (9-15, 0-11 Southeastern Conference). Guard Keyontae Johnson led UF with 15.
It was close virtually the entire night. The final margin was UF's biggest lead of the second half. But Vanderbilt never managed to lead again after the Gators scored the second half's first points.
Two plays typified Vanderbilt's inability to get over the hump.
The Commodores trailed 41-39 and had the ball under the Florida goal with 11:50 left. Coming out of a time out. Vanderbilt forward Yanni Wetzell came wide-open off a curl and forward Matt Ryan threw him the ball for what should have been an easy dunk.
The ball was a fraction of a second late and a few inches too high. It went just over Wetzell's fingertips and into the hands of the Gators' Michael Okauru, who had a running start to the other end. Okauru missed the lay-up, but Nesmith fouled him, and he sunk both free throws.
Vanderbilt was down five with 2:12 left when Ryan ripped down a defensive rebound. But Ryan threw it right to UF's Johnson in the backcourt and then fouled him. Johnson hit both shots, and Vandy never got closer.
The Commodores dug an early hole, but led 33-31 lead at the break in spite of it.
Florida took its first double-digit lead when UF's Johnson hit a jumper in the paint with 8:54 left in the first half.
Vandy answered with a 10-0 run to tie, the last points coming on a Ryan 3 off a screen from the top of the key with 4:29 left. VU led by as many as five in the first half.
Nesmith led all scorers at half with 11. Six came from the foul line.
What went right
Other than some problems with defensive rebounding, it was hard to fault the effort and execution--and even with the rebounding, once Vanderbilt seemed to realize it was getting killed on the glass, the 'Dores ratcheted up the effort.
Florida shot 33.3 percent from the field
Florida's KeVaughn Allen scored six on a 12.8-point average. Saben Lee had primary defensive responsibility for Allen, who didn't score until 3:17 remained.
What went wrong
Florida defends well, but Vanderbilt's offense was miserable for much of the night, and through some self-inflicted things, too..VU had more turnovers (19) than field goals (18).
The shooting stats--35.3 percent from the field, 20.8 percent from 3--told their own story.There were possessions where the Commodores took shots a little too quickly, and VU just lacked offensive flow in general.
The Commodores also couldn't get Lee going; he didn't score until the final seconds of the first half. Lee scored four points and had five turnovers in 37 minutes
Vanderbilt got killed early on the offensive glass by a Florida team that just seemed to have an extra gear. UF had 12 offensive rebounds in the first half, though just two in the second..
VU got little from its bench, which combined for seven points, seven rebounds, five fouls and four turnovers on 3 of 9 shooting in 51 minutes.
Finally, teams on losing streaks usually catch their share of bad breaks. The Gators, a 69.2-percent free throw shooting team coming in, one that ranked 312th in the country in free throw to field goal attempts (27.3 percent), hit 82.1 percent of their 28 charity tosses (a 49.1 percent free throw rate). That was UF's second-best percentage showing this year, trailing only the 100 percent effort (on 12 shots) against Auburn.
Player of the Game
Aaron Nesmith. The freshman was the only commodity VU could count on offensively, and he also tied UF"s Johnson with a game-high nine rebounds. Nesmith was 12 of 15 from the free throw line and 6 of 13 from the field in 37 minutes, which tied Lee for game high. He had two assists, though also four turnovers and four fouls.
Notes
VU is now 6-2 against Florida coach Mike White.
VU started Lee, Nesmith, Ryan, Clevon Brown and Simi Shittu.
Ryan hit a 3 at the 8:22 mark of the first half, extending VU's string of games with a made 3-pointer to 1,055.
Brown picked up his third foul with 16:35 left, and Wetzell got his third with 10:14 left. Shittu later picked up a third,
