AT THE BUZZER

FLORIDA 71, ALABAMA 53

Freshman forward Keyontae Johnson attacks the rim in Saturday's game at Alabama. (Photo: Alex de la Osa/UAA Communications)

Freshman point guardpoured in a career-high 21 points on a blistering 9-for-9 from the floor, while classmate and forwardadded 14 points and a career-high 13 rebounds, as the Gators rolled through the Crimson Tide for a big Southeastern Conference road victory Saturday at Coleman Coliseum. Nembhard only had two assists on the day, but he put on an offensive show, both in the paint and outside of it, as he also made both his 3-point attempts and his lone free throw for a near-perfect afternoon. Senior guardhad 13 points, four rebounds and three assists for a UF team that shot 54.5 percent, despite making just six of 19 attempts from the 3-point arc. The Gators scored the first six points of the game, led by double-digits just over eight minutes in, and stretched their lead to as many as many as 17 with just over 13 minutes to play, before the Tide began chipping away and got their crowd back in the game. Momentarily, that is. The UF lead was down to eight, 52-44, when Nembhard converted an old-fashion 3-point play to helped jumpstart a 10-4 run that ended with a steal and run-out pull-up jumper from Allen to take the margin back out to 14 inside five minutes. After a Tide timeout, Nembhard swished a 3-ball to take the margin back to 17 with 3:42 left and send the Bama fans for the exits.A second straight win for the Gators, but more importantly a second win against an opponent ranked in the Top 50 of the NET metrics system the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee will use to seed its 68-team field. Alabama started the day at No. 45 in the NET (Florida was 40th), making the Gators 2-8 against NET Top 50 teams. UF also evened its league mark through 12 games and pulled into a tie for sixth place in the conference standings, one of eight SEC teams without a losing record in league play.Nembhard, of course, has been the UF floor general since Day 1, so watching his offense grow as the season goes on is something that should have Florida fans very excited. He came into the game shooting just under 38 percent for the season, including 33.8 from the 3-point line. A week after going 1-for-7 in the loss at No. 1 Tennessee, Nembhard has knocked down 13 of his last 14 shots, three of four 3-balls, and the Gators have won two games they absolutely had to have.Florida beat Alabama on the road on a day freshman guard and top 3-point shooterfailed to score a point for the first time in his career. Locke, who finished 0-for-4 from the floor three days after going 1-for-9 in the win over Vanderbilt, clearly is affected by the hip/groin pain he's been dealing with for several weeks now.Florida (14-11, 6-6) is back on the road again, with a Wednesday night visit to No. 19 LSU (20-4, 10-1). The Tigers, who play at Georgia later Saturday, have won 13 of their previous 14, including an upset of Kentucky on Tuesday night at Rupp Arena and are squarely in the mix for the SEC regular-season title, just a game behind Tennessee.