by OWB
With the fanatic Florida faithful, the bruised bodies, the hot collared coaches, the blood and sweat soaked floor and the knocked out tooth, it could only mean one thing. The Tennessee Vols were in town.
Florida was looking for revenge, they were looking for a shot at the East title and they were looking to manhandle the Vols, but the only thing they were left looking at was the scoreboard which read Tennessee 76, Florida 72.
The No. 10 Vols (20-4) (11-2 SEC) stole the game from Florida (22-5) (8-5) and Dane Bradshaw was a big part of that burglary. With only 15 seconds left in the tied game, Bradshaw simply jumped in front of the inbounds pass, took the circle route around the defender and dropped the ball in the basket to give Tennessee a two point advantage.
“I don’t know if Major deflected it, but if he didn’t, he distracted Brewer” said Bradshaw. “I made a spin and I was fortunate the shot went in.”
That’s right folks, the cool headed Bradshaw made a spin instead of risking a charge call on a night that the refs weren’t so kind to the Vols.
Bradshaw also had a go ahead basket in the final seconds when the Gators visited Knoxville. Which only leaves you with one question, do the Florida faithful see Dane Bradshaw in their sleep?
“Who else would make the play to win the game?” Vols coach Bruce Pearl said. “It was obviously a gamble, but it was one that paid off.”
But that wasn’t all that Bradshaw did tonight. He also made crucial 3-pointers when the Gators doubled up on Chris Lofton daring Dane to shoot it. Bradshaw missed his fair share but finished the night with 15 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals.
In the first half, the Gators were up by as much as 13 points, but that didn’t last very long. Chris Lofton decided that was too much and cut the lead the only way he knew how, shooting 3-pointers.
When Lofton was done, the Gators only had a 4 point lead and that was the deficit at halftime with UF leading 40-36. With what Vol fans would now call a down night, Lofton led all Vols in scoring with 16 points.
However the second half was different story. The Vols seemed tired of getting dominated inside so they doubled up, they fought for the ball, they harassed the Florida players taking them out of their rhythm and willed their way into the lead.
The Vols led by 7 at one point but saw something familiar to them, Florida fighting back. Brewer hit a 3 in the corner and tied the score 69-69 with 1:34 left to play. Jujuan Smith answered with a clutch 3 from the corner giving the Vols a 72-69 lead with 1:27 left.
Just when the Vols thought they had a little bit of cushion, the Maryville high school star Lee Humphrey made a Lofton like three from way behind the arc to tie the game once again at 72-72. Then Jujuan Smith gave the Gators the edge when he made a bad pass to Patterson and turned it over to Florida.
With the game tied and a few seconds remaining, all Florida had to do was make a clean pass and work the post like they had all night to seal the deal. Which brings us back to Dane Bradshaw’s electrifying steal and score.
UF guard Corey Brewer knew the coverage was tight. Brewer knew they had to get a clean pass in order to score, but what did he do? He threw a bounce pass out there which Bradshaw snatched up and turned into 2 points. There was an instant quiet over the rowdy Gator crowd. They just couldn’t believe that they had been Bradshawed again.
“I should have called time out,” Brewer said. “I thought about it and everything started going fast. I made a bad play.”
A bad play for Brewer morphed into a great play for Bradshaw who talked about the win afterwards. “It was more than a statement game,” Bradshaw said. “It was a championship game for us. We wanted to be able to control our own destiny, which we’ve been able to do. This win on the road was huge for us.”
With this win, Tennessee won the SEC East, the Eastern Division’s No.1 seed in next month’s SEC tournament and swept Florida for the first time since 2000.
The Vols will most likely be bruised and battered when Arkansas comes to town on Saturday, February 25th, but what else is new? Tip off time is 1 p.m. and the game will be aired on Jefferson Pilot.