Florida Gators
Charleston Southern
Balanced Attack Leads Men's Basketball Past Charleston Southern, 89-64
Thursday, December 20, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Gainesville, Fla. – Freshman guard Nick Calathes (Winter Park, Fla.) had 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists and the Florida men's basketball team posted an 89-64 victory over Charleston Southern Wednesday night at the O'Connell Center.
The Gators (11-1) opened the game with an 18-0 run, making nine of their first 10 shots from the floor. Florida was 58 percent from the floor as four of its five starters hit at least half their shots.
The Gators were much better against Charleston Southern, making seven shots in the early spurt and shooting 58 percent for the game. The Gators capitalized on CSU's 23 turnovers, converting them into 24 points while only committing nine turnovers. Florida protected the ball well on the night, registering a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Junior guard Walter Hodge (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) added 16 points and tied career high numbers with six assists and five steals for Florida. Sophomore center Marreese Speights (St. Petersburg, Fla.) had 14 points, and freshman guard Jai Lucas (Houston, Texas) chipped in 12.
Calathes was 6-of-12 from the floor, and the Gators finished 8-of-19 from 3-point range. The Gators controlled the Buccaneers in the paint, outscoring the Buccaneers 42-18, despite being outrebounded by one board.
Despite battling early second-half foul trouble, Speights made his presence felt after the break in a sequence of plays that included a steal and a fast-break dunk, a left-handed turnaround jumper and a slam putback off the glass from an errant shot by Lucas.
Omar Carter led the Buccaneers (5-6) with 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting while connecting on six treys.
The Buccaneers started out cold from the floor and dug themselves in a hole early, misfiring on its first eight shots, and fouled UF into the double-bonus round shortly after halftime.
Florida countered by pounding the ball inside and making the most of its height advantage. The Gators got easy buckets down low and went to the free throw line often. They finished 13-of-22 from the line and had its largest lead of the night at the 4:09 mark in the second half, a 27-point margin.
Florida next plays at Ohio State in Columbus on Saturday at 4 p.m. on CBS, a rematch of last season's national title game.
