Florida Basketball: Gators Blow Out Tide, Clinch Share of SEC Championship

Last night, No. 14 Florida (23-6, 12-3) clinched a share of the SEC regular season championship as they rolled the Alabama Crimson Tide (19-10, 11-4) 78-51 on an emotional Senior Night in the O’Connell Center.

The game pitted Alabama coach Anthony Grant against Florida coach Billy Donovan. Both coaches are in the mix for SEC Coach of the Year.

Grant, who served as an assistant under Donovan at Marshall and Florida from 1994-2006, has done a tremendous job improving the Tide from November to March.

Donovan has inexplicably not won an SEC Coach of the Year award, despite winning two national championships and reaching three Final Fours during his 15-year career in Gainesville.

Before the game, seniors Chandler Parsons, Vernon Macklin, Alex Tyus and Adam Allen were honored before the game. They were presented framed jerseys to commemorate their time in the Orange and Blue.

The first half witnessed two teams seeking leverage.

The Gators jumped out to a 4-0 lead after a layup by Macklin and a pair of free throws by Tyus.

With eight minutes remaining in the half, senior center Chris Hines sunk a pair of free throws to give the Tide a 16-15 lead.

The Gators took a four-point lead with 3:36 left in half thanks to a layup from Parsons and Tyus.

Alabama went on a 6-0 run, capped by a dunk by sophomore forward Tony Mitchell and free throws by freshman guard Trevor Releford and Mitchell, to take a 24-22 lead with 2:13 left in the half.

A dunk by Mitchell with 48 seconds left gave the Crimson Tide a 30-27 lead.

Kenny Boynton’s trey made the score at the half 30-30.

It was all Gators in the second half.

The White Mamba (Parsons) got the ball rolling with a defensive rebound. He then made a tough jumper while being fouled by Hines.

Though not the best free-throw shooter around, Parsons made the free throw and puts Florida ahead 33-30.

By the 12:45 mark, the Orange and Blue finally got breathing room after a three by the Boynton, a dunk by freshman center Patric Young, and a three by the White Mamba.

Grant’s timeout did very little to stop the bleeding.

After the timeout, Parsons responded to Mitchell’s dunk by drilling a three.

Young got the Gators off and running with a steal. The fast break was capped by an alley-oop from junior guard Erving Walker to Macklin to open up a 56-42 lead.

Once again, Grant tried to stop Florida’s momentum with a timeout.

Timeouts didn’t matter as the Orange and Blue went on a 22-9 run to turn a tight game into a rout.

In the waning moments, Donovan subbed the seniors, who left the court to a rousing ovation.

In a nice gesture by Donovan, redshirt junior forward Adam Allen, who’s missed the past three seasons with a knee injury, saw his first action of the season as he dribbled out the remaining 26 seconds of the contest.

Dick Vitale reiterated MVP talk for Parsons during the game. The White Mamba made his case for league MVP as he finished with 19 points on 7-for-14 from the field, and hauling in 11 rebounds.

He also dished out three assists and recorded two steals.

Tyus finished with 12 points on 4-for-7 from the field and nine rebounds.

Macklin scored 19 points on 9-for-12 from the field. He pulled down six rebounds and dished out two assists.

Boynton scored 14 points on 4-for-9 shooting (4-for-8 from three-point range) handed out six assists and notched two steals.

For Alabama, Releford tallied a team-high 17 points on 6-for-9 from the field, four assists, and three rebounds.

Mitchell scored 14 points on 6-for-13 shooting and pulled down eight boards.

JaMychal Green pulled down nine rebounds but was ice cold from the field, as he finished 5-for-19.

Florida either needs to win their final game or Alabama must lose in order to clinch the second outright SEC Championship during Donovan’s tenure.

On Saturday, Florida can clinch the SEC Championship outright as they hit the road to play No. 20 Vanderbilt (21-8, 9-6) in the regular-season finale.