NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Dusty Hannahs scored more points in an SEC Tournament game than any Arkansas player other than Todd Day.
It wasn't enough.
Florida held on to beat Arkansas 68-61 Thursday at Bridgestone Arena despite Hannahs scoring 33 points for the Razorbacks.
Game sketch
RECORDS Arkansas 16-16; Florida 19-13 STARS Arkansas junior guard Dusty Hannahs (33 points). Florida sophomore guard Kasey Hill (18 points, 5 assists) and senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith (13 points, 9 rebounds). TURNING POINT The Gators outscored the Razorbacks 8-2 in the final 53 seconds. KEY STAT Florida hit 8 of 20 three-pointers compared with 2 of 12 for Arkansas. UP NEXT Offseason for Arkansas.
— Bob Holt
"I'd trade all those points for a W to keep playing in March," said Hannahs, a junior guard from Little Rock. "That's the bottom line.
"It doesn't matter. We're going home. I'd rather have zero and us moving on to play A&M."
The Gators (19-13) advanced to play Texas A&M today while the Razorbacks (16-16) ended their season.
Day, the Razorbacks' all-time leading scorer with 2,395 points, set Arkansas' SEC Tournament record with 39 against Alabama in 1992.
It wasn't enough for Razorbacks back then, either. Alabama won 90-89.
Hannahs tied for the 10th-highest scoring total in the SEC Tournament. Kentucky's Melvin Turpin holds the record with 42 points against Georgia in 1984.
The only other Razorback besides Day and Hannahs with 30 or more points in an SEC Tournament game was Corliss Williamson, who scored 30 against Kentucky in a 90-78 loss in 1994.
"Dusty was pretty much the Razorbacks today," Arkansas junior guard Manny Watkins said. "We didn't really help him at all.
"He played great, but it's a team effort, and we need to help him more. That's why we didn't get the win."
Hannahs hit 2 of 8 three-pointers, but he was 10 of 15 on his other shots -- mostly floaters and drives to the basket -- and hit 7 of 7 free throws.
"He's a great talent," Florida senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. "He's got a great mid-range game, floaters.
"I don't think he missed a floater today. We switched everything, but he did a great job of creating his own shot."
Hannahs was credited with a basket on a goal-tending call against Devin Robinson with 1:07 left that pulled Arkansas within 60-59 after the Gators had led 42-31.
"I thought we had them about to fold at that point," Hannahs said. "In our minds we were thinking, 'Just get this one stop.'
"But Kasey Hill slashed in there and made a tough shot. He's a good player. That's what good players do. We just didn't answer after he got that one."
Hill, a junior guard, scored on a drive to put the Gators ahead 62-59 with 53 seconds left.
"I thought he did a really good job using a ball screen and getting up a head of steam," Florida Coach Mike White said. "He's got terrific speed."
Arkansas guard Anton Beard was called for a charge on the other end, and Finney-Smith hit two free throws to make it 64-59.
After Hannahs missed a three-point attempt, Robinson scored on a breakaway dunk to push the Gators' lead to 66-59 with 13 seconds left to put the game away.
"We got it down to one point, but we just didn't get the stops at the end when we needed them," Arkansas senior guard Jabril Durham said.
Hannahs set his career high, surpassing the 26 points he scored in an 82-68 victory over Mississippi State this season.
"Dusty carried us the whole game," Arkansas senior guard Anthlon Bell said. "They didn't have an answer for him. He just did everything he could.
"Me, I should have stepped up more. I should have, but it doesn't work like that sometimes. But give Dusty credit. He came out and did what he had to to help the team."
Excluding Hannahs, the Razorbacks shot 10 of 38 from the field and 8 of 18 from the free-throw line. Bell and junior center Moses Kingsley -- Arkansas' top three scorers on the season along with Hannahs -- shot 2 of 10 and 4 of 12, respectively.
According to game shot charts, the Razorbacks missed 17 attempts in the lane.
"We missed a lot of layups, lot of layups," Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. "Momentum layups."
The Gators held Arkansas to 2 of 12 on three-pointers by extending their defense, and Anderson said the Razorbacks didn't do a good job of exploiting that strategy by finishing drives and missing free throws.
Arkansas hit 15 of 25 free throws, with Kingsley going 2 of 7.
Kingsley and Durham each missed the front ends of 1-and-1 opportunities.
"We got to the line 25 times," Anderson said. "But we didn't do anything with it."
Hill led the Gators with a season-high 18 points and 5 assists in 26 minutes off the bench. Finney-Smith had 13 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists, and freshman guard KeVaughn Allen (North Little Rock) added 11 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.
Kingsley had 10 points and 14 rebounds.
The Gators hit 8 of 20 three-pointers -- including Robinson going 2 of 4 and Finney-Smith and Allen 2 of 5 -- but finished 21 of 54 from the field (38.9 percent). The Razorbacks hit 22 of 61 (36.1 percent).
"We played good enough defense, I thought," Anderson said. "But on the other end, you've got to be able to put the ball in the hole."
Anderson said Florida deserved credit.
"I thought they grinded it out," he said. "It was kind of a grinding game, so kudos to them."
Anderson credited Hannahs with finding multiple ways to score.
"His floater is a patented shot he's got in his arsenal," Anderson said. "He took what the defense gave him."
Hannahs scored 24 of Arkansas' 38 second-half points, including a stretch in which he scored nine consecutive points in a three-minute span to fuel Arkansas' rally.
"It's fun in that moment getting to go out there and play aggressive," Hannahs said. "But it isn't fun anymore."
Sports on 03/11/2016