Gators no match for No. 6 Tennessee, Dalton Knecht in 85-66 loss

After a couple close losses in non-conference play, the Gators have dropped their first two road SEC games by large margins. They were no match Tuesday night for No. 6 Tennessee and Dalton Knecht.

The graduate transfer guard dropped a career-high 39 points on 13-for-23 shooting (4-for-6 from 3) to lead the Volunteers to an 85-66 win in a game where they led from start to finish.

Behind 44-32 at the break after trailing by as many as 17 points, Florida cut the deficit to 10 with under 13 minutes left. From there, however, the Vols went on a 12-0 run to build their biggest lead, 71-53.

Tennessee led by 20-plus for most of the final 8 minutes and no less than 17. The Gators had no answers defensively against Knecht and couldn’t keep up with him and the Vols on the offensive end.

“This isn’t a team you want to fall behind against,” Todd Golden said after the game. “I thought we fought in the second half, cut it to 10, had a possession or two to make it single digits, some broken plays and they made some threes to take it back out to 16. But obviously just didn’t play well enough tonight.”

UF had its worst shooting performance of 2023-24 in Knoxville, finishing with season lows in field goal percentages from the floor (29.4 percent on 20 of 68) and from 3 (22.7 percent on 5 of 22).

The Gators attempted more field goals and free throws than Tennessee and shot well at the line (21 of 25) but missed multiple shots at the rim as well as several wide-open looks from behind the arc.

“Honestly, I thought we got some opportunities at the rim. We just didn’t finish with very much physicality and we allowed their bigs to go vertical on us and meet us chest-to-chest,” Golden said. “I thought we were attempting to draw fouls a little too much instead of just finding a way to power through and put the ball in the basket.”

Junior guard Walter Clayton Jr. scored a team-high 16 points but shot just 33 percent including 1-for-7 from 3. Sophomore guard Riley Kugel added 12 points off the bench and started the second half.

“Toughness. They just played harder. It’s that simple,” Clayton said. “They were being physical on defense; we just weren’t being physical on offense.”

Senior guard Zyon Pullin had his worst shooting percentage of the season (18.7%) but scored 11 points with 7 of 9 free throws and logged seven rebounds and a team-high four assists.

“They got going early,” Pullin said. “They made some shots early and we struggled a little bit to finish around the rim and to make plays. I think that just set the tone.

“They’re very physical. Definitely took some time to get adjusted to it. They denied a lot of our guys. We have to find ways not to let that bother us next game.”

Senior forward Tyrese Samuel had his eighth double-double this year with 10 points and 11 rebounds, but sophomore center Micah Handlogten had just three rebounds and 2 points.

Freshman center Alex Condon finished with 5 points, six rebounds and three blocks, though he was 1-for-9 and committed three turnovers. The Vols posted a 38-26 advantage in the paint.

Tennesse junior forward Jonas Aidoo had 19 points and was one rebound shy of a double-double. But Knecht was the story of the game, playing until the final minute to try and score 40.

“He’s been doing it to everybody,” Golden said of Knecht. “Obviously, we came into the game with an idea of how we’d try to turn his water off. In the first half, I thought a lot of it was in transition and broken plays, and he just didn’t let us off the hook. Then in the second half, a little more of the same in terms of getting downhill off the ball screen and us not doing a good enough job of protecting the rim when he drove. Then he obviously made some deep threes and some tough shots.

“It was a two-man band for them tonight between him and Aidoo going for 58 of their 85 points. Honestly, I thought we did a decent enough job on [Zakai] Zeigler (7 points), thought we did a good job on [Santiago] Vescovi (2 points), and took away [Josiah-Jordan] James (3 points), some guys that are usually really electric and powerful guys. But again, between Knecht and Aidoo, they were a two-man band and they just killed us tonight.”

Florida (11-6, 1-3 SEC) has lost seven straight games in Knoxville, with the last win coming in 2014. The Gators are back on the road Saturday night at Missouri. Tip is at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.