True to form, the 2022-23 Florida Gators put together a valiant effort against an evenly-matched team in the 2023 SEC Tournament on Thursday.
Equally true to form, that effort came in a game they lost.
Mississippi State’s Tolu Smith scored a career-high 28 points and dumped in the game-winning lay-up with 4.3 seconds to go in overtime, carrying the Bulldogs to a 69-68 win over a Florida team that scraped itself off the court at several junctures and scrapped until the end.
The first rise came after a mostly dreadful first half of offense in which Florida made six of its first 10 shots and then went cold enough to be lucky to trail by just 10 at halftime.