Florida Gators

TAMPA, Fla. — The Florida coaching staff's points of emphasis (more like warnings) about Belmont's penchant for shooting 3-pointers, not to mention its ability to make them, clearly had an impact on the Gators.

That much was evident from Monday night's opening tip. 

The game clock had barely ticked off five minutes, yet UF had scored the game's first 15 points and the bombing Bruins, who averaged 37.5 attempts from beyond the arc through two games, had gotten off just one 3-ball against the Gators' intense perimeter pressure and high hands, while committing six turnovers. 

"Our defensive energy, our communication, our attention to detail relative to the scouting report, our feeding off the crowd -- I thought the energy from the tip was high," Florida coach Mike White said, ticking off the things he liked about the way his team started the game. "Not that it remained there the whole game, but there was enough of it."



Enough to open a season with a fourth straight win for the first time since 2012. 

Senior forward Canyon Barry scored 17 points, including 11 during a UF run of 16 consecutive points in the second half, and the Gators put away the Bruins for a 78-61 victory before 6,650 at Amalie Arena. Sophomore guard KeVaughn Allen had 14 points, junior guard John Egbunu went for 12 points and eight rebounds, and junior forward Devin Robinson had his fourth double-figure scoring game in as many outings with 11 points. 

"That's a dangerous team to play," Barry said. "If they go out and hit 10 3s, it's a different game." 

They didn't hit 10. The Gators (4-0) limited the Bruins (1-2) to just seven made long balls in 27 attempts. That was just shy of 26 percent, which actually was better than UF's 5-for-21 performance from deep (23.8 percent). No matter. Florida finished with seven more total field goals than Belmont, went 19-for-24 from the free-throw line and scored 20 points off 20 turnovers. 
 
UF started quickly and asserted its significant size advantage, with Egbunu hitting a jump hook in the paint and Robinson a jumper inside the first minute. After Justin Leon had to exit the game early with a jammed finger, his replacement, redshirt freshman Keith Stone, threw down a dunk — for the first basket of his career — then Allen drove for a left-hand bank shot. It was 8-0. 

Before long, it was 15-0 when the Bruins scored their first basket, with the Gators taking the margin out to 20 halfway through the period, at 24-4, with Belmont finally hitting its first 3 with just over eight minutes to go in the half. 

"The plan was to just run them off the 3-point line," Allen said. "Just don't let them get any off." 

It mostly worked, but, as White referenced in his postgame news conference, there were some defensive lulls. One came late in the first half, another early in the second, as the Bruins closed within nine. 

That's when Barry basically took over the game. 

"I attacked the hole well and I was able to get to the rim," Barry said. "The guys kept feeding me. We have so many guys with the ability to score, so whoever can score, just give him the ball and let him go to work."

He converted a conventional 3-point play to get the lead back to 12. After Belmont rained a 3, Barry attacked the paint and hit a jumper, then drove into the teeth of the Bruins defense and got to the rim on back-to-back possessions. 

After two free throws from guard Chris Chiozza, Barry sank an elbow pull-up jumper and then knocked down a couple free throws to send the Gators on a spree of 16 unanswered points that built their lead up to 23. 

For Barry, it was a second straight solid offensive night. He had 16 points in last week's nail-biting defeat of St. Bonaventure, including a trio of consecutive second-half 3-pointers. 

"He's just a really versatile and experienced player," White said of his fifth-year graduate transfer from College of Charleston. "We have to find ways to get him more and more involved in the offense, get him in space to drive it and get him open looks, He's not just a catch-and-shoot guy. He can create for himself and for others. He got it going like he did the other night. He's in a really good rhythm right now." 

But even with four wins in as many tries, White won't say the same about the Gators. Lack of ball security and consistency on the defensive end will be topics of conversation as UF gets set for a three-games-in-four-nights paddle wheel at the AdvoCare Invitational, starting Thursday night in Orlando with the team's toughest test to date: Seton Hall. 

More attention to detail, more sustained energy will be needed. 

"The way I look at it, we've beaten four pretty good teams on neutral floors [and] that's better than the alternative — but we've got a ways to go," White said. "Just like before Bonaventure and before [Belmont], before Seton Hall I'll tell them, 'I hope we win, but this is a long season and we have to get better. We have to enjoy the process and clean up mistakes.' We had a five-minute stretch out there where we looked like a pretty good team. Then a three-minute stretch where, my goodness, there weren't enough timeouts for us. So we've shown it in spurts. We have to do it in longer spurts."