GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Erving Walker missed every shot from the field. But he was nearly perfect from the free-throw line — just what Florida needed to avoid a three-game losing streak.

Chandler Parsons scored 17 points, Walker added 14 and the Gators beat Auburn, 78-70, Thursday night despite not making a field goal in the final 8:24.

Alex Tyus chipped in 12 points and seven rebounds for Florida, which snapped a two-game losing streak and improved its chances of making the NCAA tournament.

“We know and you guys know where we want to get to, and we couldn’t get there without going through tonight,” Parsons said. “We looked at it like they were in our way and we had to get them out of there.”

Florida (18-8, 7-4 SEC) could gain more control of its postseason hopes with wins at Mississippi on Saturday and against No. 20 Tennessee next week.

DeWayne Reed led the Tigers (12-14, 3-8) with 22 points before fouling out with 19.2 seconds remaining.

Tay Waller added 13 for Auburn, which missed 22-of-29 shots from 3-point range and fell to 1-5 against the league’s Eastern Division.

“The foul shots made the difference in the game,” Auburn coach Jeff Lebo said. “That’s what it came down to.”

Once again, Florida struggled from long range. The Gators were 2-for-10 from behind the arc, but pulled this one out from the charity stripe.

They finished 32-for-40 from the line, including four in a row to close it out. Their final 15 points, all following Vernon Macklin’s hook shot in the lane, came from the line.

“It feels good to see a few of them go in there,” Parsons said.

All of Walker’s points came from the stripe. He was 0-for-6 from the field, but 14-for-16 from the line. The Gators needed every one of them, especially considering they missed 13 in a close loss at South Carolina and missed 11 in a tight game against Xavier.

“We’re a good free-throw shooting team,” Walker said. “We had two bad games at it, but we know overall we’re a good free-throw shooting team, so we just put in extra work before practice and I think it paid off. We’ve just got to stay focused on that.”

Auburn trailed 61-50 with about 9 minutes to play, but Waller got hot from long range and got the Tigers back in it. He hit three 3-pointers, single-handily cutting the lead to 64-59 with 5:49 remaining.

Reed took over from there, driving to basket and getting to the free throw line. His three-point play and two free throws made it 74-70 with 23 seconds remaining, but the Tigers couldn’t get any stops down the stretch.

The Tigers kept fouling, and Florida kept making free throws.

The Gators made 15-of-19 in the final 6:28.

Macklin and Erik Murphy scored seven points apiece for Florida, which also got a big lift off the bench from Dan Werner.

Werner had nine points, his most since the SEC opener in early January, and four rebounds. The team’s lone senior also grabbed a huge rebound with 1:45 to play, secured several loose balls and stuffed a left-handed jam during a 12-1 run early in the second half.

“I think the unfortunate part for Dan is people do not understand his value and what he brings to the team,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. “He’s a great kid who loves this school, who works his tail off every single day. ... It was great to see him really play with a lot of energy
and fire. Had some success out there and really impacted the game.”