GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Ole Miss already was without its starting power forward, 6-foot-10, 245-pound Khadim Sy, who did not make the trip for the team's date at Florida due to a coach's decision. Then, about 10 minutes before tip-off Tuesday night, word came that Rebels shooting guard Tyree Breein, the team's leading scorer and fifth-leading scorer in the Southeastern Conference, was a late scratch after suffering a back bruise in practice.
Just like that, Ole Miss was minus two starters averaging a combined 26.6 points. Heck, Tyree was leading the SEC in scoring in conference play at 26.5 himself.
So what did these breaking developments due to alter the Gators' pregame mindset?
"Nothing," grad-transfer forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. said. "Same mentality, same approach. We had to come out, get a win and it started with defense."
The Gators brought both offense and defense to start the game against the Rebels in jumping to an early double-digit lead, but took a short hiatus in surrendering that lead before a red-hot run late in the first half got 'em back in gear. UF led by 12 at the break, opened a 23-point cushion in the second half, and went on to post a 71-55 victory at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center.
The win was significant to the here and now because it put some distance between the egg the Gators (11-5, 3-1) laid in Saturday night's ugly loss at Missouri. It was also big in a nostalgic way because it marked the 100th for Coach Mike White in his five seasons at Florida, making him the fifth coach in the program's 104-year history to get there. He needed 158 games to reach the century mark, making White the second-fastest to triple digits behind only Billy Donovan, the program's winningest all-time coach, who needed 154.
"Not in it for that" White said of the milestone. "Pretty cool, though. I've had some really, really, really good players, I'm at a terrific place and hopefully we can wins some more."
A few of those good players were on display against the Rebels (9-7, 0-3), starting with sophomore forward Keyontae Johnson, who had a team-high 15 points and six rebounds, while Blackshear added 13 points and nine rebounds, five on the offensive end in helping the Gators to a smashing 44-18 edge in paint points. Sophomore point guard Andrew Nembhard had 10 points, six assists and captained an offense that shot 54 percent for the game, including 62 percent (on 18-for-28 from the floor) in the first half.
That blistering pace through the first 20 minutes was highlighted by a stretch of nine straight made field goals after the Gators had an early 11-point lead wiped out by a 16-2 Rebels run. No matter.
UF coach Mike White make his case to an official during what turned out to be his 100th win on the Florida sidelines.
Nembhard lobbed an alley-oop dunk to freshman forward Omar Payne. Blackshear made a layup off a nice post feed from Payne. Sophomore guard Noah Locke bombed a transition 3, UF's first long ball of the game. Johnson had back-to-back buckets. Freshman Ques Glover hit a corner 3. Blackshear had another layup on a picturesque drop from Johnson.
Those were some of the highlights of a 21-6 spree over the final 8:16 that had the home team up, 40-28, at the break. The Gators scored the first seven points of the second half, starting with a 3 from Locke, to balloon the margin to 19. The Rebels got no closer than 14 and trailed by as many as 23 with less than eight minutes to go.
"It's hard to lose the SEC's leading scorer," Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said of Tyree, who had shot 46 percent overall, 50 from the 3-point line and made 82 percent of his free throws in the team's first two league games. "We got exposed in some areas."
Such is life on the SEC road, especially short-handed. Florida, of course, would know. They were down one role-playing reserve at Missouri three days earlier and got scorched by 60-plus-percent shooting both overall and from deep.
"If our last defensive effort became the norm, we wouldn't win any more games," White said.
At one point in the first half, the Rebels had banged 10 of their first 15 shots (66 percent), but the Gators never panicked.
"They were hitting some tough shots," Nembhard said. "It wasn't necessarily bad defense. We just had to stay the course."
Such was the case, as the Gators won a game they were supposed to — and had to, especially at home — against an undermanned foe. Things are about to get far more difficult, what with fourth-ranked and currently unbeaten Auburn coming Saturday to the O'Dome and starting a gauntlet of some very difficult games.
The Tigers, by the way, figure to have all their multitude of weapons in tow.
"We're going to need our confidence to be high to make shots," Nembhard said. "I think we're moving in the right direction."
