The University of Tennessee men's basketball team dropped a 91-67 decision Saturday afternoon at Florida, the reigning national champion.
Freshman forward Nate Ament led No. 21 Tennessee (11-5, 1-2 SEC) with 17 points in the setback at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
After the first 13-plus minutes came entirely within a five-point window, Florida (11-5, 2-1 SEC) junior forward Thomas Haugh posted a personal 7-0 run in 68 seconds to put his team up by five, 26-21, with 5:30 left in the frame.
At that time, the Gators had 12 more field-goal attempts (8-of-26) than the Volunteers (6-of-14), but the former made the game's next two shots to pull even at 26 just 99 ticks later.
Florida countered with a 15-2 burst, featuring 10 points from sophomore guard Boogie Fland, in just 2:49—it included 10 straight points in 60 seconds—and that capped the first-half scoring to make it 41-28 at the intermission.
Following a 6-of-22 start from the floor through 13 minutes, the Gators made eight of their next 10 field goals and finished the half at 14-of-33 (42.4 percent). Tennessee shot 8-of-20 (40.0 percent) overall, 3-of-7 (42.9 percent) beyond the arc and 9-of-11 (81.8 percent) at the line, but got outscored 18-6 in points off turnovers.
The Volunteers notched the first basket of the second half, but Florida tallied the next seven points to claim an 18-point lead, 48-30, with 17:35 to go. The home team extended its margin as high as 25 in the second session.
Tennessee got the deficit down to 17 points, 70-53, with 8:06 to go after scoring six straight points in 33 seconds, but clawed no closer.
Ament, who amassed his highest point total since Nov. 26, paced a quartet of Volunteers in double figures. Junior forward Jaylen Carey and senior guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie scored 12 points apiece, with the former setting a season best with six made free throws on nine attempts. Freshman forward DeWayne Brown added 10 points on a 5-of-6 field-goal clip.
Fland led all scorers with 23 points, one shy of his career high, on 9-of-13 field-goal shooting, including a 3-of-6 ledger from deep. Junior center Rueben Chinyelu had 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting to go along with 16 rebounds, the latter mark the most by a Tennessee foe this season.