The Alabama men's basketball team fell at No. 6 Florida 64-52 Saturday afternoon in Gainesville, Fla. Alabama is now 19-10 overall and 11-5 in Southeastern Conference play.
The score was close throughout. Alabama opened the second half on a 14-4 run and led by as many as eight points, 45-37, with just over 12 minutes remaining. However, Florida ended the game on a 25-7 run to secure the win.
"It's always going to be a 40-minute game," UA head coach Anthony Grant said. "We wanted to stay the course, not play too fast or play too slow, and that helped us to get the lead; but a team as good as Florida will know how to respond to that."
The Tide outscored Florida 37-30 in the paint. The Gators won the game from the free-throw line, where it held a sizeable advantage over the Tide, shooting 22-of-26 from the line compared to Alabama's 4-of-10.
"Things went their way," Grant said. "We wanted to get to the free-throw line but that did not happen."
Junior guard Trevor Releford led the Tide with a dozen points, giving him 1,208 for his career and making him 35th on the UA's all-time scoring list. He also tallied four assists. Sophomore forward Nick Jacobs and sophomore guard Trevor Lacey both had 11 points and five rebounds.
Florida forward Erik Murphy led all players with 15 points and eight rebounds while Casey Prather had 10 points and nine rebounds off the bench.
"This is not something that can discourage us," Grant said. "We just have to move forward. We still have the chance to get a top-four seed (in the SEC Tournament). We just need to be prepared to enter into another hostile environment at Ole Miss."
Alabama plays again Tuesday, March 5 in Oxford, Mississippi against Ole Miss. The game will be televised by ESPNU and the radio broadcast will be carried on the Crimson Tide Sports Network.
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