GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As the final seconds ticked down, they didn't represent the end of the game Sunday as much as the end to a chapter of frustration that for seven years had hovered over one of the most successful and consistent basketball programs in the Southeastern Conference. Florida, for all its wins and NCAA Tournament berths, just couldn't beat rival Florida State.
Well, the Gators didn't just beat FSU this time, they beat the 20th-ranked Seminoles down with a ferocious second half of timely plays, incredible effort, will power and physicality. UF's five starters logged extensive minutes but never gave an inch and the Gators were rewarded for it with a resounding 71-55 victory in front of a raucous Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center that had been waiting for going on two years to let loose in a moment like this.
It was a cause for celebration.
And tears.
After Mike White greeted counterpart Leonard Hamilton for the perfunctory post-game handshake, Florida's coach pivoted and walked into Keyontae Johnson's arms for an embrace that was nearly a year in the making — and as meaningful as anything that played out on the court Sunday afternoon.
"I was happy for our players, happy for our fans and happy for our coaches, of course," White said afterward. "But mostly I was happy for Keyontae."
It had been 316 days — Dec. 11, 2020 — since Johnson hauntingly collapsed to the Tucker Center floor in the early moments of last season's loss at Tallahassee. The calamitous turn of events completely altered the direction of Florida's season, even after Johnson recovered and rejoined the team, albeit in a spiritual, even coaching, capacity. As much as the game meant to White, with six losses in as many cracks at the Seminoles since taking over for Billy Donovan in 2015, it meant more for the team because of its collective love for Johnson, who was tossed the game ball by White in a victorious and emotional locker room afterward.
"It was an amazing feeling," said graduate transfer guard Phlandrous Fleming Jr., who last season was starring at Charleston Southern. "I wasn't here last year, but everybody is still thinking about it and you could just feel how much everyone cares for Keyontae. When we finally won, it was like a relief for him, but also a relief for everyone."
The box score will show that Colin Castleton, the 6-foot-11 senior forward, led the Gators (2-0) with 15 points, 16 rebounds and six blocked shots over 33 minutes. He was tremendous. But this was an across-the-board effort by Florida's front-line core players, with the five starters logging at least 29 minutes and Fleming shaking off a nasty Saturday night bout with the flu to chip in 22 more. Six guys accounted for all but 14 of the 200 available minutes — and those half-dozen laid it on the line for an inspired 186.
GuardMyreon Jones (0) lets fly one of his big 3s in the second half that helped UF take out its lead.
Fifth-year senior forward Anthony Duruji scored 15 points, grabbed seven rebounds and a was warrior on defense in his 36 minutes. Guards Myreon Jones and Brandon McKissic, transfers from Penn State and Missouri-Kansas, respectively, each had a dozen points and joined in the dogged defensive effort. Fleming, who earlier in the day watched the team's shoot-around from the stands (masked up, blanketed in a hoodie) and got a pre-game IV to rally from a night of fever and vomiting, had nine points and five boards off the bench. Starting point guard Tyree Appleby had just five points, but ran the offense for 29 minutes on his way to five points, five assists and just one turnover.
Appleby, in fact, had to leave the game midway through the second half — when the Gators were taking control and the O'Dome was coming alive like it hadn't in two years — to run to the locker room and vomit due to flu symptoms that hit him during the game.
He came right back, though, and helped finish off the Seminoles (1-1), who four days earlier hung 104 points on Penn in their season opener.
"This game was really personal," said Duruji, who along with his teammates played like it.
Florida forward Anthony Duruji makes like Superman as he launches and sells out in chase of a loose ball, part of them for the Gators as they out-played and out-hustled the Seminoles during this meeting.
And it was anybody's to win through the first 29 minutes, following a sloggy first half when the Gators shot just 34.4 percent and made only three of 12 from the 3-point line, yet trailed 30-28 at the break. It helped that FSU did some slogging of its own in missing 10 of its first 11 field-goal attempts.
The back-and-forth continued into the second half, as the lead-change column showed 14 after Castleton redirected a teammate's miss back into the goal to give the Gators a 45-44 edge with just over 10 minutes to go. It would be the final lead change.
From there, UF blew FSU out. First with a run of 13 straight points that eventually turned into a 29-8 spree across nine minutes, as the lead swelled to 19 inside three minutes to go. The Gators just took the Seminoles' will in a ferocious span reminiscent of FSU's recent run of those seven straight victories, including the last four by double digits.
"I feel like we beat them at their game," Castleton said.
Hamilton, now in his 20th season at FSU and a combined 11-9 against UF, signed off on that assessment.
"They out-Florida State-ed Florida State," he said.
The Gators were the aggressors. They were more physical. They dove for the loose balls, pounded the glass and got up into the Seminoles' ball-handlers on the way to holding FSU to just 33.3 percent shooting after the break, out-rebounding the Noles 23-14 and forcing nine second-half turnovers that led to 11 points. FSU's most heralded offensive player, Houston transfer Caleb Mills, was held to just two points on 1-for-7 shooting in only 17 foul-plagued minutes. Offensively, UF hit 43 percent in the second half, made five 3s (each at key moments) and went 11-for-12 from the free-throw line.
"I thought we pressed the right buttons leading into this one and in the first half. All of us collectively, players included, just made some subtle adjustments," White said. "From then on, it's a matter of whether we could deliver it or not."
Oh, they delivered, all right.
After the Castleton bucket to take the lead, FSU took a timeout for an injured player. Out of the stoppage, the Gators got a defensive stop that Appleby rebounded and went coast-to-coast for a layup. That was followed by another stop that fed to an Appleby-led break when he pitched to the right wing for McKissic, who buried a 3-ball to quickly push UF ahead by six.
Two free throws from Jones, two more from McKissic and a long offensive rebound that Fleming took hard to the hole for a hoop and foul blew the O'Dome roof out, as the home team had 13 straight points in barely two minutes.
Colin Castleton (12) flushes two of his 15 points in between a couple helpless Seminoles Sunday.
"They wanted it more. Their intensity was ramped up, the crowd started getting into it, and they just started feeding off the energy and it propelled them," said FSU forward Malik Osborne, who had a game-high 18 points and six rebounds, but had his hands full against Castleton in the post. "We have to give Florida credit. They were a tough team."
A 3-pointer by FSU's Matthew Cleveland temporarily stopped the UF run, but Fleming hit two free throws and Duruji had a steal at midcourt that became a crazy run-out slam dunk to help keep the second-half assault going and the Rowdy Reptiles going nuts.
"The defense is what was working for us," Duruji said. "We had a lot of stops, we were disciplined and that led to some easy offense. We had the momentum the whole time. We stayed together, played for each other and took the shots we prepared for. That's what worked."
Beautifully. On a day against their nemesis, no less. Finally and fittingly.
Well, the Gators didn't just beat FSU this time, they beat the 20th-ranked Seminoles down with a ferocious second half of timely plays, incredible effort, will power and physicality. UF's five starters logged extensive minutes but never gave an inch and the Gators were rewarded for it with a resounding 71-55 victory in front of a raucous Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center that had been waiting for going on two years to let loose in a moment like this. 
