Lee Humphrey had two shots at being a hero and a villain before a hometown crowd Saturday night.

The former Maryville High School standout and Florida junior had a pair of open looks from 3-point range in the final minute and 30 seconds Saturday night.

Had he hit either, he would have given the No. 2 Gators the lead and silenced a crowd of 24,011 that booed and heckled him all night long.

Instead, the SEC's leading 3-point shooter missed both of them. He disappointed only about three sections of Thompson-Boling Arena in an 80-76 loss that cost the Gators their shot at an undefeated season and a spot on top of the polls.

Give Gators coach Billy Donovan a do-over, and he'd still put the ball in Humphrey's hands.

"We got our best shooter two really good looks," he said. "I've said before, I'll take Lee Humphrey taking open 3's or jump shots like the looks he got."

In fact, Donovan would have OK'd the entire script for the final 39 seconds.

The Gators had a 2-on-1 fast break and two open looks from 3-point range in those final 40 or so seconds.

The break resulted in a Chris Lofton steal. Humphrey and Taurean Green, who had made 97 3-pointers between them entering Saturday's game, proceeded to miss 3's in the final 8 seconds.

Humphrey's trey would have given Florida a 79-78 lead. Green's would have made the final score look better scrolling across the bottom a television screen.

"He's not going to make every shot," Green said of Humphrey's misses. "They were good looks, unfortunately it didn't go."

Make no mistake, those misses stung afterwards.

"Coming back, I would have liked to have played well," Humphrey said. "I would have liked to make some shots, especially those down the stretch. But that's part of the game. You've got to take them and hopefully they fall."

They didn't. Humphrey had just one of five shots fall, a 3-pointer early in the second half.

And while the Gators' 17-0 start -- the best in school history by seven games -- was foiled, that didn't stop Humphrey for thanking the vocal minority who turned out to support him.

Humphrey's parents, Tony and Macheala, sat courtside in seats provided by UT booster John "Thunder" Thornton. Tony Humphrey had purchased more than 600 tickets in the northeast corner of the arena. Maryville's varsity and JV basketball team attended the game, as did plenty of well-wishers.

The rest of the crowd booed Humphrey every time he touched the ball.

"I wasn't that surprised," said Humphrey, who signed autographs and greeted friends well after the game ended. "I figured coming into Knoxville, the majority of the crowd is going to be Tennessee fans. The Florida fans aren't going to make too much of a difference when it comes to crowd noise.

"I knew my hometown crowd wasn't going to drown out 24,000, however many Tennessee fans there were."

Funny enough, UT coach Bruce Pearl, whose Vols pulled off their second victory over a top-five team this season, thought those fans drowned out Humphrey.

"I thought every time Humphrey got an open look that would be the one to go," Pearl said. "But there were 25,000 in this building that would not let that ball go down."