Florida held a 39-36 halftime lead over Alabama on Wednesday night, and appeared poised to at least go down to the wire with the defending SEC champion in Gainesville.
Then the Tide changed, as tides do — and Florida got swept away.
Alabama began the second half with an extended 22-4 run that swung the Gators’ lead to a 15-point deficit, then kept pounding the offensive glass and pouncing on Florida turnovers to ultimately take an 83-70 victory in the O’Connell Center.
Much of the game could be boiled down to Alabama shooting 20 more shots than the Gators, a result of a whopping 20 offensive rebounds for the Crimson Tide and 20 turnovers for the Gators.