Florida @ Georgia preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 5, 2020 ) Georgia 75, Florida 81

Florida heads to Georgia on Wednesday for its next-to-last game before the SEC Tournament begins, and the Gators know they must be more consistent. Saturday’s loss at Tennessee provided another example of Florida’s up-and-down play as the Gators committed 11 turnovers in trailing by 15 points at halftime, then were down 19 points with 12 minutes left before a late surge fell short in a 63-58 defeat.

The Gators began the week tied with Mississippi State for fourth in the SEC, but lost to Mississippi State on Jan. 28 and would be the fifth seed in the conference tournament, missing out on the double-bye the first four seeds receive. Senior forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. told reporters postgame Saturday that Florida must focus on putting together a full 40-minute effort, saying, “that’s what separates teams that make it far in the (NCAA) Tournament and teams that might exit early.” Georgia’s season likely will end with no postseason play, barring an unexpected run through the league tournament, but it has won three of its past four following Saturday’s 99-89 home victory over Arkansas. “If you’re in a process, you’ve got to make progress in it, and I think that’s what these guys are doing,” Georgia coach Tom Crean told the media.

TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: ESPNU

ABOUT FLORIDA (18-11, 10-6 SEC): Blackshear, a Virginia Tech transfer who is second on the team in scoring at 13.4 points and first in rebounding at 7.6, led the Gators with 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting Saturday. Sophomore forward Keyontae Johnson averages a team-best 14 points on 54.1 percent shooting from the field, but was limited to six points against Tennessee after scoring 25 points three days earlier against LSU. The Gators shot 55.1 percent in the second half, but could not recover from a 33.3 percent shooting performance before halftime.

ABOUT GEORGIA (15-14, 5-11): Freshman guard Anthony Edwards won SEC Freshman of the Week honors for the second consecutive week, averaging 31 points on 52.8 percent shooting from the field against South Carolina and Arkansas. The 6-5 Edwards continues leading all freshmen in the nation in scoring at 19.8 points (third overall in the SEC), scoring 26 on 8-for-14 shooting from the field Saturday. Junior forward/center Rayshaun Hammonds scored 22 points with nine rebounds against Arkansas, and is averaging 14.2 points and 7.4 rebounds across his past five games.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Georgia senior G Jordan Harris set season highs in minutes (30) and rebounds (nine) Saturday.

2. Florida sophomore G Noah Locke, who scored a combined three points in his previous two games, finished with 15 points Saturday and was 3-for-6 from 3-point range.

3. The Gators pulled off the biggest comeback in program history against Georgia on Feb. 5, rallying from 22 points down with 16:43 to play for an 81-75 home victory.

PREDICTION: Florida 84, Georgia 79