Florida has an answer for Varnado, 69-62

Associated Press
Published Sunday, February 7, 2010

After two years of trying, Florida finally had an answer for Mississippi State center Jarvis Varnado.

Georgetown transfer Vernon Macklin - a 6-foot-10, 240-pound junior center - was able to handle one of the nation's top post players well enough to give Florida a 69-62 victory on Saturday, snapping a two-game losing streak to the Bulldogs.

Macklin scored a career-high 20 points and grabbed six rebounds against the 6-9, 230-pound Varnado, who is rapidly approaching the NCAA career record for blocked shots, to give Florida its first victory over Mississippi State since NBA lottery picks Joakim Noah and Al Horford were in their final season.

"We had to have a presence at the basket," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "The last two years we played them with him (Varnado) there, we had no presence at the basket. Even when we tried to have a presence, we couldn't have a presence. I thought Vernon, if he could get the ball in there, could do some things."

Macklin made 10 of 14 shots and gave the Gators (17-6, 6-3 SEC) a boost coming out of the half. He scored Florida's first 10 points - four on dunks and another on a hook over Varnado - and left the game for a breather after 5 minutes with the Gators ahead by four points.

Varnado scored 16 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, but was just 6-of-16 shooting and had a season-low one block.

"We had our hands full and we didn't perform tonight," Varnado said. "They made it tough for me to score."

Varnado was no factor after hitting a pair of free throws to cut Florida's lead to 59-49 with 6:22 to play. The rest of the way, he went 0-for-2 from the field and 0-for-2 from the free-throw line, and he had two rebounds, one foul and one turnover.

Ravern Johnson had 20 points for Mississippi State (16-7, 4-4), which has lost four of its last five games.

Kentucky 81, LSU 55: Freshman DeMarcus Cousins had 19 points and 13 rebounds for his sixth consecutive double-double and No. 4 Kentucky cruised past LSU in Baton Rouge, La.

Cousins, who played only 20 minutes, is eighth in the country in doubles-doubles with 14 and 24th in the nation in rebounding.

The Wildcats (22-1, 7-1 SEC) trailed 6-1 until John Wall hit a jumper 4:29 into the game. They needed only 3 minutes to erase LSU's lead, scoring 41 of the next 49 points to take a 42-14 halftime lead.

LSU (9-14, 0-9) shot less than 19 percent from the field in the first half and finished at 26.7 percent overall (21-of-66).

Bo Spencer led LSU with 25 points, 19 in the second half, but he had seven turnovers. Tasmin Mitchell added 10 points for the Tigers.

Arkansas 82, Auburn 79: Courtney Fortson scored 24 points - including nine in a row late in overtime - to lead Arkansas at home over Auburn.

Fortson's 3-pointer broke a 71-71 tie, and he later hit from the perimeter and made two free throws with 40.6 seconds left to make it 78-73. After an Auburn miss, Fortson made a layup for a seven-point lead.

Auburn (11-12, 2-6 SEC) had forced overtime with Andre Malone's layup on wild play in the final seconds of regulation.

Arkansas (12-11, 5-3) has won four straight.

Mississippi 74, Alabama 67: Chris Warren scored 21 points to help No. 25 Mississippi come back from 19 points down to beat Alabama in Oxford, Miss.

Terrence Henry had 20 points and eight rebounds for the Rebels (17-6, 5-4 SEC) who snapped a two-game losing streak. The Rebels made 22 of 29 free throws in the second half.

Ole Miss was down 43-24 a minute into the second half, but slowly chipped away until Terrico White's tip-in with 6:11 left put the Rebels up 58-56.

White, Warren and Henry combined to hit four free throws in the final 28 seconds to send Alabama (13-10, 3-6) to its third straight loss.

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