NASHVILLE — The victorious outcome mattered more to Florida coach Mike White than the aesthetics of his team's performance that left room for improvement.
White certainly appreciated the Gators' play at clutch moments that resulted in a win over Arkansas.
Kasey Hill scored 18, including a clutch layup with 53 seconds left that helped eighth-seeded Florida outlast No. 9 seed Arkansas 68-61 Thursday in an SEC second-round matchup.
The Gators led 55-46 with 6:45 remaining before the Razorbacks rallied within 60-59 with 1:07 left on Dusty Hannahs' layup. Hill then sliced through for a layup and Florida (19-13) held on for a victory it needed to rebuild its NCAA Tournament resume'.
"We did enough the second half defensively, stepped up and made a few big shots to get us that first win," White said. "You can't do something special in a tournament like this, obviously, unless you win the first one. And we took care of business."
Florida shot just 39 percent (and was 18 of 30 from the line). But the Gators came up with the timely free throw, basket or rebound they needed to advance to today's quarterfinal against top-seeded Texas A&M.
Dorian Finney-Smith had 13 points and KeVaughn Allen 11 for Florida, which made 5 of its first 6 3-pointers in the second half to build an 11-point lead that proved to be just enough.
Hannahs scored a career-high 33 points for Arkansas (16-16). The Razorbacks made just 2 of 12 from long range after entering as the league's best 3-point shooting team and converted just 15 of 25 free throws. Their bench was also outscored 28-5.
Hannahs' 12-of-23 shooting and edges in rebounding (45-40) and paint points (32-24) gave Arkansas a chance, but the Razorbacks just couldn't seize late opportunities against the Gators.
Florida sophomore center John Egbunu, a former USF standout, had nine rebounds and eight points, playing with a brace on his right thumb that was injured in practice.
A late charging foul on Arkansas' Anton Beard after Hill's basket was also critical, leading to Finney-Smith's two free throws with 26.8 seconds left. Egbunu's defensive rebound led to Devin Robinson's slam and Allen added two free throws with 4.1 seconds for the exclamation point.
Kevarrius Hayes played the first 2½ minutes in place of Egbunu, who appeared to be adjusting to playing with the hand and wrist bandaged.
"Apart from the few times when I dove on the floor and kind of hit it pretty bad, it was bearable," Egbunu said.
Tennessee 67, Vanderbilt 65: Derek Reese's two free throws with 13.3 seconds left proved the difference, and the 12th-seeded Vols (15-18) held on to upset the fifth-seeded Commodores (19-13. Vandy appeared to have tied it at the buzzer when Wade Baldwin drove for a layup, but a review showed the ball still in Baldwin's left hand when the red light went on. Tennessee avoided being swept by its in-state rival. Vanderbilt fell to 1-8 against Tennessee in the conference tournament.
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Explore all your optionsAlabama 81, Mississippi 73: Retin Obasohan scored all 17 of his points in the second half, Riley Norris added 16 and the 10th-seeded Tide (18-13) made 12 3-pointers to upset the seventh-seeded Rebels (20-12). Mississippi's Stefan Moody scored 39, tied for the second-highest single game total in SEC tournament history.