Florida had to stay an extra five minutes to get the victory, but the Gators outlasted Georgia in overtime to win 98-93 after blowing a 21-point second-half lead.

The Gators moved to 14-6 and 4-3 in SEC play with the victory. Georgia holds the same record. Since leaving UF to take the head job at Georgia, Mike White is 0-3 against the Gators overall and 0-2 at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

Micah Handlogten paced the Gators with 23 points and 17 rebounds. He connected on 10 of his 13 shots from the field. Two other Gators scored 18 apiece — Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richard. Zyon Pullin had 20 points, including a pair of game-clinching free throws with less than 10 seconds remaining in the overtime period.

RJ Melendez led all scorers with 35 points on 13-of-19 shooting. The first-year Bulldog buried six of his 10 triples to obliterate his previous career-high of 18 points. Georgia also got 15 points and 11 rebounds from Russel Tchewa and 14 points from Blue Cain.

Florida opened the game hot, jumping out to a 15-point lead in the first 10 minutes. The Gators had a 47-34 lead at the halftime break thanks to a 59% clip from the field and a 56% conversion rate from beyond the 3-point line.

Georgia, meanwhile, shot well from 3 but missed half of its 10 attempts at the free throw line. That came back to bite the Dawgs; Florida made 17 of its 20 freebies while Georgia made just nine of 17.

To start the second half, Florida pushed its lead up to 21 points with 12:52 to play before Exactech Arena was introduced to the Melendez & Cain Show.

A quick 8-0 spurt in two minutes’ time from Georgia provided a spark. A pair of fastbreak buckets from Melendez in quick success several minutes later brought the lead down to 10. With 5:16 to play, Melendez splashed a triple that undid a 4-0 spurt from Florida.

Two minutes later, Cain buried a 3 to make it an eight-point game. Some 30 seconds after that, Melendez knocked in a triple that made it a seven-point game.

Despite playing in front of its home crowd, Florida wilted down the stretch. Georgia scored the final 10 points of regulation — a 10-0 run over the final 2:44 to eventually tie and force overtime. Cain and Melendez scored all 10 of the Dawgs’ points during that stretch.

Ball movement was crisp. Georgia executed and kept feeding the hot hand. On the other side, Florida turned it over twice and missed jumpers that fueled Georgia’s spirits.

A layup from Cain tied the game at 85-all with 49 seconds to play and gave Florida a chance to win it in regulation. The Gators worked the ball to the baseline but tried to make one pass too many and turned it over.

Georgia’s Justin Hill walked it up the floor with the clock ticking under 30 seconds to play. But Georgia’s final possession would be just as disappointing. Hill bled the clock down, dribbled himself into a crowd, and then turned it over. Neither team got a decent look to win it in regulation, and fans were treated to free basketball.

In the overtime period, Georgia ran out of gas. Florida ran back out to a seven-point lead and eventually won the game at the free throw line.

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Clayton provided some late-game heartburn for his head coach when he heaved the ball three-quarters court out of a trap with less than 15 seconds to play, turned it over, and then watched Melendez bury a pull-up 3 to claw back within two points. But Pullin stepped to the free throw line on the next possession and calmly iced the game.

Florida entered the day in the “next four out” category of Joe Lunardi’s bracket projections for ESPN. With upcoming games against Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Auburn, this was a big win. The Gators will take a three-game winning streak into Lexington next Wednesday.

Georgia, meanwhile, heads back to Athens for a two-game homestand against Alabama and South Carolina next week.