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College Basketball AP Top 25 Scores: Unranked Tennessee Volunteers Knock Off #5 Florida Gators
Not much has gone right for the #5 Florida Gators since wrapping up the SEC East a week ago. After riding a 17-game winning streak and grabbing the number one spot in the AP Rankings the Gators have now played themselves out of a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament after getting beat-up by the unranked Tennessee Volunteers.
The Tennessee Volunteers (21-9) used a 17-0 run in the first half to crush the Florida Gators (25-5) and went on to win 86-76. The Gators suffered a miserable drought in which they didn’t score from the final 1:46 of the first half through the first four minutes of the second, allowing the Volunteers to build a 27-point lead.
Chris Lofton scored 21 points for the Vols and JaJuan Smith added 16 points as Tennessee improved their chances of gaining a bid to the March dance.
Al Horford led the Gators with 17 points and 10 rebounds but could do little to inspire a team that has appeared lax over the past week and a half. Florida had looked like a favorite to repeat as National Champions but have since seen their stock drop with some embarrassing losses to then unranked Vanderbilt and unranked LSU. They have now lost thereof their last four SEC games and no longer seem a lock to march through the SEC Conference Championship.
Tennessee improved to 9-6 in the SEC while the Gators fell to 12-3.
