Defense Comes Alive in Second Half

Friday, November 11

Jacksonville, FL

7:30 PM

Florida Gators

Florida Gulf Coast

Senior point guard Kasey Hill had a terrific night running the team and fueling UF's pressure defense that turned the game in the second half.

Defense Comes Alive in Second Half

Saturday, November 12, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

Box Score Photo Gallery by Courtney Culbreath & MacKenzie Meyer

The Gators blitzed Florida Gulf Coast for 15 straight points and rode the wave to an 80-59 season-opening victory in Jacksonville.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — His team led by five points at halftime Friday night, but Florida coach Mike White was giving it to the Gators in the locker room. Florida Gulf Coast had outplayed them through the game's first 20 minutes and wasn't going away unless it was sent away.

What was encouraging about it all, the Gators, to a man, knew it.

"He told us that we knew what we had to do," junior forward Devin Robinson said. "We weren't playing hard enough, we were getting outworked and if something didn't change we were going to go home sad."

It took a few minutes for that change to come about in the second half. After the Eagles turned that five-point deficit into a five-point lead, the Gators — seemingly in unison — found another gear and with it a suffocating 15-point run on the strength of a defense that put in motion an eventual 80-59 season-opening victory in front of 5,212 at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.

Robinson led the Gators with 14 points and six rebounds, while 6-foot-11 junior center John Egbunu was good for 13 points and eight boards. A couple reserves had some key moments, with fifth-year senior swingman Canyon Barry came off the bench for 13 points and six rebounds, while backup center Kevarrius Hayes had nine points, five rebounds, went 5-for-5 from the line, and a career-best five blocks in just 14 minutes.

Defensively, UF's defense, much of it in full-court pressure, forced 19 turnovers and converted them into 24 points, while doing a nice job of taking care of the ball. The Gators had just seven turnovers and no UF player had more than one.

"They were playing with more energy than we were, plain and simple," said senior point guard Kasey Hill, who was strikingly efficient in scoring 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting, to go with four assists, three rebounds and two steals. "We dug in as a team, got some stops, got out on the break and just played better basketball."

FGCU (0-1), an NCAA Tournament team last season and missing its best player in 6-foot-8 forward Marc-Eddy Norelia (broken hand), flipped that five-point halftime margin by coming out of the locker room and hitting its first three shots while turning the Gators over twice. Up 50-45 with 16 minutes to go, the Eagles were shooting 51 percent from the floor, 50 percent from the 3-point line (7-for-14) and out-rebounding a bigger and longer UF team 25-23.

Indeed, this was about effort.

"I would hate to think we weren't playing as hard as we could those first 25 minutes," Florida coach Mike White said. "I think it was as much about gaining some confidence after we got our first couple stops [to begin the run] and really got settled in."

Junior forward Devin Robinson led the Gators with 14 points, including this finger roll to the rim in the second half.

A basket in deep by Egbunu started things at the 15:4 mark. After the under-16 media timeout, Barry scored two straight buckets on an offensive rebound and in transition off a steal to put the Gators up 51-50 and give them a lead they wouldn't surrender.

In fact, during the 15-point spree over nearly seven minutes, FGCU had 11 possessions. Six ended in turnovers, four in missed shots and one on a missed front end of the bonus. Of the four misses, three were blocked shots by the UF defense (two by Hayes). The last of those 11 possessions ended in a steal and wicked run-out dunk by Hill.

The Gators gave up just 24 points after halftime and outscored the Eagles 35-9 inside that 16-minute mark.

"You turn it over 19 times and get nine shots blocked, that's a pretty good barometer that you need to take better shots and better care of the ball," said FGCU coach Joe Dooley, whose team lost at UF, 70-50, in a very similar fashion last season. "That's unacceptable. They put us in that that spot, but we also put ourselves in that spot."

Despite an off-night from sophomore guard KeVaughn Allen (6 points on 2-for-8 shooting), the Gators shot 45.2 percent in the second half, while holding the Eagles to 32 percent. From the free-throw line, where UF was one of the worst in the country last season, Florida went 20-for-26 (76.9 percent).

But the story of this one was effort and defense. Without the former, you can never have the latter. If the Gators needed a reminder of that, it's good it happened in the first half of the first game. They needed to carry that lesson as the team navigates this crazy non-conference schedule of 11 straight games away from the under-construction Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center.

"We're such an up-tempo team. When our defense turns people over that's going to lead to easy baskets," Barry said. "There are going to be games where we don't make shots, don't make free throws, so hopefully that's something we can depend on this year; that our defense travels."

Especially with so much traveling to do.