Florida 91, Vanderbilt 72
Wednesday, December 30, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
AT THE BUZZER
FLORIDA 91, VANDERBILT 72
FLORIDA 91, VANDERBILT 72
WHAT HAPPENED: Junior forward Colin Castleton scored a career-high 23 points and the Gators used a blitz of eight straight converted field goals in the second half in blowing out the Commodores in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams Wednesday night at Memorial Gymnasium. The game marked UF's first since the Dec. 12 loss at Florida State, when star forward Keyontae Johnson collapsed to the floor, and the Gators responded with surprise crispness given the club went 15 days without practicing while dealing with the Johnson fallout. Castleton, the 6-foot-11, 231-pound transfer from Michigan, exploited his size advantage against a smallish Vandy frontcourt in hitting 11 of 13 shots, including six dunks, to go with five rebounds, easily out-pointing his previous career best of nine points. Sophomore wing Scottie Lewis, who along with Castleton helped give the Gators five players in double-figure scoring, stuffed his stat line with 16 points, five rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots, while sophomore point guard Tre Mann added nine points, a career-high 10 rebounds and four assists. Florida trailed 12-11 barely five minutes in when Lewis canned a 3 and the Gators never trailed the rest of the way, using a 12-1 run and defense that forced 11 straight missed field goals to take a 43-29 halftime lead. The Commodores got within six early in the second half, thanks to a trio of 3-pointers by Tre Thomas in the first three and a half minutes. The Gators, though, answered the charge by hitting eight straight field goals to push their lead up to 18 and closed out the road win by going 18-for-25 from the floor in the second half, good for an astounding 72 percent. UF shot 62 percent for the game and forced Vandy into 16 turnovers that were converted into 20 points. The Commodores were led by 16 points and six assists from guard Scotty Pippin Jr.
WHAT IT MEANS: Always good to start conference play with a victory. The Gators are now 5-1 in SEC openers under Coach Mike White. In a the bigger picture, the team now has a blueprint from which to work on how to play without Johnson.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Though Castleton may seem like the obvious choice here, the Gators got a huge jolt from fourth-year junior forward Anthony Duruji. UF needed Duruji, the transfer from Louisiana Tech, to step up in the worst way, given the void at the "4" position following the loss of Johnson. Duruji had gotten off to a rough start this season, missing 10 of his 12 field-goal attempts and all five 3-point tries, but he answered the call and flashed big-time moments of athleticism and energy on his way to 11 points (4-for-5 overall, 1-for-1 from deep), five rebounds and three blocked shots and a pair of steals over 27 minutes. Good for him.
STAGGERING STATISTIC: That 72 percent is certainly worth repeating, but less than 12 minutes into the game, nine different Florida players had scored, as White and his staff used the team's depth (even minus their best player) to combat any effects of the long layoff.
UP NEXT: Florida (4-1, 1-0) returns to Gainesville for its SEC home opener Saturday against LSU (6-1, 1-0) in a CBS nationally televised game. The Tigers opened their conference slate Tuesday night by blasting Texas A&M at home, 77-54, behind 32 points from heralded freshman Cameron Thomas.
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