UF sophomore backup forward Tuonghach Gatkek does a two-hand swat job on Oklahoma State's Matthew-Alexander Moncrief during his team's second half rally and 81-72 victory in Saturday's SEC/Big 12 Classic at the O'Dome.
Super Subs Light Second-Half Fire in Comeback vs Cowboys
Saturday, January 29, 2022 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Their leading scorer, rebounder and rim protector, Colin Castleton, one of the best in the Southeastern Conference, was in street clothes for a fifth straight game Saturday. As for his improving-by-the-day backup, Jason Jitoboh? He was at Shands recovering from season-ending eye surgery. The Florida Gators, as a team, actually went to the hospital to see Jitoboh earlier in the day. They had a good visit and vowed to go out Saturday against Oklahoma State and "win one for J."
Late in the first half, the Gators were down by 16 points. The Cowboys were on the way to shooting 63 percent from the floor and (wait for it) 70.0 from the 3-point line. The Exactech Arena edition of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge was looking very much like a laugher.
In the halftime locker room, UF coach Mike White used the hated s-word to describe what he'd just seen from his players over the game's first 20 minutes.
"No one likes to be called 'soft,' but we played soft in the first half. We just did," White said.
That's when White and his staff chose to take the "Next Man Up" philosophy to the next level. He turned to three seldom used players — guards Niels Lane and Eli Kennedy, plus forward Tuongthach Gatkek — to start the second half, with the instructions to play their backsides off on defense and give their team some energy that had been absent to that point.
Barely a minute into the period, the OSU lead was single digits. Seven minutes in, it was a one-possession game. Eleven in, the Gators had the lead and never gave it back, as fifth-year senior point guard Tyree Appleby poured in 21 points and the rest of his teammates followed the Lane/Kennedy/Gatkek lead to an 81-72 come-from-behind victory that snapped a two-game losing streak at a rockin' O'Dome.
"That was fun out there," Gatkek said.
Bet it was. After being positively carved up by OSU through the opening period, the UF defense did a 180 in walling up at 29 percent in the second half and forcing a dozen turnovers — seven during one five-minute, game-changing stretch — that led to 15 points. The Gators (13-7) shot 50 percent in the second half and dropped five of 11 (.455) from deep, after posting 34.5 and 25.0 (5-for-20) in the first, and sealed the game with an outstanding display from the free-throw line, where they went 33-for-42 (.805), including 11-for-13 over the final 3:16 to salt things away.
After trailing 45-32 at the break, Florida outscored Oklahoma State 49-27 in the second half.
"Whatever Mike White said to his team at halftime was about 10 times better than what I said to mine," Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton Jr. offered afterward.
Sophomore guard Niels Lanehelped ignite the second-half rally with sensational defense that proved contagious with his teammates.
Appleby hit five of his 10 field-goal attempts, including three of eight 3s, to go with four assists and three steals. The undersized front court of 6-7 Anthony Duruji, playing mostly at the "5," and 6-5 Phlandrous Fleming Jr., taking turns manning the "4," combined for 24 points and 11 rebounds, plus knocked down a pair of 3s each. Freshman guard Kowacie Reeves, with 11 points, gave the Gators (13-7) four players in double figures.
But it was the trio of Lane, Kennedy and Gatkek that altered the game more than anyone else.
"He just basically told me to go out there and do what I do best," said Lane, the sophomore who had not played since Dec. 22 against Stony Brook. "He told me to go play defense."
Fleming was one of Gators yanked from the lineup — and was delighted with the result.
"They started off the second half perfectly," Fleming said. "I'm happy [Coach] did that."
So get this:
Lane did not score, attempting only one shot over his 13 minutes, but had two blocked shots, a steal and in the plus-minus column posted a plus-14.
Kennedy only played the first three minutes of the second, the tone-setting portion, and scored a point from the free-throw line as UF opened the period on a 6-2 run.
Gatkek, the 6-9, 172-pounder, scored a career-high eight points, grabbed three rebounds and blocked three shots on the way to a plus-10.
"They haven't gotten as many minutes as they've wanted, but today they came in and made a great impact on the game," Fleming said.
The Cowboys (10-10), less than two weeks removed from a huge upset road win reigning NCAA champion and then top-ranked Baylor, had a 13-point lead, at 50-38, with 17 minutes to play when the Gators began mounting the comeback. A run of eight straight points included six free throws and cut the margin to five. A couple Fleming free throws with just over 13 to play made it a two-point game.
Point guardTyree Appleby plays to the crowd after dropping a huge 3-pointer in the second half.
OSU's Isaac Likekele (team-high 14 points) hit driving layup in transition to push his team up four inside 10 minutes, but that's when UF's big charge kicked in. It started with back-to-back 3s from Fleming, followed by the go-ahead long ball from Myreon Jones (8 points, 2 steals), just one of his last 11 from distance. After a timeout, Appleby spun for a transition jumper in the paint that gave the Gators a four-point lead.
The Cowboys got it back to one, but then came another mini-run of 8-2 by the Gators to provide a cushion. Appleby hit two more free throws, then buried a huge 3-pointer. OSU's Tyreek Smith pulled it back within four with an offensive rebound and putback, but Fleming nailed a late-shot clock 3 to make it a seven-point game inside four minutes, and the Gators finished matters from there.
Not soft.
"I told our guys I probably have more admiration for the fight because of what happened in the first half than if we had been consistently pretty good for 40 [minutes]," White said. "I'd probably been more satisfied, as a coach, of course, but with everything going on — the haymakers they were throwing, the way Oklahoma State played in the first half, and the way we just didn't respond, at all — for us to have that second half performance was a little befuddling, [but] shows the fight this team has."
All the way down the bench and all the way to their teammate at Shands.
They did it for J. More than anything, they did for themselves. All of them.
