Todd Golden shares message to Florida players entering overtime vs. Georgia

Florida nearly blew a remarkably large lead in the second half against Georgia on Saturday, watching a 21-point margin disappear entirely as the game went to overtime.

Somehow the Gators were able to rally during the extra five minutes to secure a 102-98 win.

“At that point it was all about just staying poised, or regaining your poise. Right?” coach Todd Golden said. “A game that we were leading probably for, we still never trailed, so we led for every minute, with the exception of … we led for 42 minutes. It was obviously a gut punch to see triple zeros across the scoreboard, across the clock and be tied, knowing that we have to go into overtime.”

Worse, the near-collapse came against former coach Mike White, now in charge of the Bulldogs. Fans in the O’Dome were anxious, hoping to avoid a seriously embarrassing loss.

Luckily, Golden was able to connect with his players during the brief intermission before the overtime period started.

“The message was, ‘Hey, we can respond one of two ways in this situation,” Golden said. “‘We can either feel sorry for ourselves and think we blew it and kind of not regain that focus and regain that fight. Or we can buck up and get back to playing some basketball.'”

Florida quickly built a lead in overtime to get back out in front. Even then a costly gaffe in the waning moments nearly cost the Gators.

With under a minute to play, guard Walter Clayton fired a pass deep toward the Georgia side of the court. It sailed long, right into the hands of the Bulldogs.

And it went right to the hot hand, at that.

Georgia’s RJ Melendez pulled up near the top of the arc after dribbling down and fired up a long 3-pointer. Bang. It hit home, making it a two-point game again with six seconds remaining.

Florida was able to close the game out after in-bounding successfully this time, with guard Zyon Pullin making a pair of free throws after he was fouled.

“Again, after that first possession where we turned it over in overtime, I thought we did a really good job of being aggressive, especially ZP starting with that and-1,” Golden said. “I think Will (Richard) got a huge offensive rebound, him or Tyrese (Samuel) putback and we started scoring and we extended. With the exception of that possession where Walt threw it deep I thought we did a good job of getting that thing to the finish line in overtime.”

Good enough for a 102-98 win, even if it was a nervy one.

The win was Florida’s third in a row, giving the team some real momentum heading into a pivotal rematch with No. 6 Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., on Wednesday night.

That game will be played at 8 p.m. ET, with a national broadcast on ESPN. Kentucky won the first meeting between the two programs this season 87-85.