Florida basketball: Gators waste big opportunity against Wake Forest

Florida basketball was on the road last night against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, with a prime opportunity to pick up a Quad 1 win early in the season.

Despite having a lead in the second half, the Gators were unable to close it out and lost by a score of 82-71. 

The script from last night was eerily similar to what he plagued the Gators over the past couple of seasons and is a trend that Todd Golden needs to fix.

Florida had the game in their hands, but once they lost the lead, they couldn’t settle down and bounce back.

Florida basketball: Highs and lows

With 14:33 left in the second half, the Gators had a nine-point lead with the ball, and a chance to go up by double digits. ESPN gave Florida an 81.4% chance to win at that point.

But from there, it all went downhill. By the 10:33 mark, the Gators had lost their lead, and Wake was in a groove that Florida couldn’t break up.

Florida shot just 40% from the field last night compared to Wake’s 49.1% and committed six more fouls than the Demon Deacons. That is not a recipe for winning on the road.

A bright spot for the Gators was that Riley Kugel has his best game of the year to this point, and is starting to look like the guy we saw at the end of last season again.

He put up 24 points on 9/14 from the field, including 4/6 from downtown. Three other Gators, Tyrese Samuel, Zyon Pullin, and Walter Clayton Jr., were also in double figures.

But Florida missed Micah Handlogten in this one. His size would have swayed the rebound battle a lot and minimized the effect that Andrew Carr had on the game.

Regardless, this is a Gators team that is better than their 4-3 record and had a chance to prove their worth with a win last night.

Florida will have to learn to close games out if they want to be relevant in March.