Florida Gators

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Florida's players and coaches knew they'd be overmatched and undersized in the front court for Saturday's road date at Mississippi State, but they didn't expect the final statistics to look like a college team battling a NBA team. 

Sophomore forward Tolu Smith rang up career marks of 27 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, but his domination inside was just a snapshot of what the Bulldogs did to the Gators at Humphrey Coliseum. They outscored UF in the paint by 22. They out-rebounded the Gators by 21, including nine on the offensive glass and 14 on second-chance points. That Florida was even in the game, much less with a buzzer-beating shot that would have sent the game into overtime, was fairly stunning.

That sophomore point guard Tre Mann's 3-pointer at the horn was short was not, though, as the Gators ultimately fell 72-69.

"Every game in this league is going to be physical. We have to know that, we have to understand that, and we have to come into each game as a team and rebound together, box out and play more physical," junior forward Colin Castleton said. "That's all it comes down to. We just didn't get the job done." 

Mississippi State did. The Bulldogs (9-3, 4-2) shot 48 percent from the floor, but hit 10 of 12 field-goal attempts during a stretch that bridged the first and second halves and put the Gators (6-4, 3-3) in an 11-point hole — at 40-29 — less than two minutes out of the locker room. To that point, 30 of MSU's 40 points had come in the paint. 

When it was over, the Bulldogs' overwhelming down-low margins looked like this: 

• Points in the paint: 52-30 (or 72 percent of their eventual total).
• Rebounding: 47-26, including 15-6 on the offensive end. 
• Second-chance points: 18-4. 

"I like to think, in the future, we'll add a little more resistance than that and and play with a little more toughness," said UF coach Mike White, who was playing his second consecutive game minus sophomore wing and defensive special Scottie Lewis (health and safety protocols), thus taking the team's post-Keyontae Johnson makeover to another level. "You look at rebounding discrepancy and you think it's big-on-bigs. That's not always the case. It was a few times, but what I saw in real time was our bigs contesting some shots, even blocking some, and our guards just not doing a good enough job of mixing it up, getting in there with rotational block-outs and putting their bodies on their bigs. Even if they don't get the ball, we have to compete."

Instead, MSU owned the inside. 

Smith, the 6-foot-10, 245-pound transfer from Western Kentucky, went 11-for-13 from the floor, with seven offensive rebounds. Senior forward Abdul Ado, who goes 6-11, 255, had 11 points and nine rebounds. The Bulldogs' backcourt of Iverson Molinar and D.J. Stewart combined for 25 points and 10 boards. 
 
The Gators were led by fourth-year junior guard Tyree Appleby's 20 points, thanks to 11-for-11 from the free-throw line, as well as 16 points, seven rebounds and six blocked shots by Castleton. Mann had 14 points and six assists, but also four turnovers. No UF player, beside Castleton, had more than three rebounds, with forward Anthony Duruji in foul trouble from the opening minutes. 

"We seemed a little rattled offensively, and that happens sometimes when playing from behind," White said. "I thought we got off to a very good start, then the flow and tempo dictated us playing in the half court more than we wanted to coming into the game." 

The Gators led, 29-28, late in the first half, but surrendered the last two baskets of the period, then the first four of the second found (all in the low post) and themselves down 11. They cut the MSU lead down to four twice midway through the half, but again fell back by 11 inside of two minutes remaining when UF's full-court pressure kicked in an 11-3 game-ending spurt and actually baited the Bulldogs into taking a frantic and rushed shot, up just three, with 12 seconds to go, rather than playing to be fouled. 

Florida rebounded the miss and was a 3-pointer from tying the game, but Mann double-clutched from outside the arc, trying to draw contact, and his shot barely grazed the rim as the horn sounded. 

"We knew we would have a mismatch in the paint, so you have to be able to rebound down [from the guard position] and help each other out," Castleton said. "You can't have guys leaking out or trying to run into offense. We have to get down there, get dirty and grab rebounds. We just didn't do the job we had to do."