FINAL: Florida 76, Florida State 67
Friday, November 18, 2022 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
FLORIDA 76, FLORIDA STATE 67
WHAT HAPPENED: Fifth-year senior forward Colin Castleton scored 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds, but it was the overall second-half energy and effort of the entire Gators team that turned the tables on the Seminoles Friday night and turned a 19-point first-half deficit into the first win at Tallahassee in a decade. Castleton may have fell short of becoming the first player in program history to score at least 30 points in three straight games, but he helped ignite the stunning comeback -- UF was basically was left for dead in the first half -- by hitting nine of his 14 field-goal attempts and going 7-for-10 from the free-throw line. The two-time All-Southeastern Conference selection scored 19 of his points after coming out of the locker room, which the Gators went to trailing 43-26 after shooting a woeful 27.6 percent from the floor and 8.3 from the 3-point line (1-for-12). Guard Will Richard joined Castleton in the double-figure scoring column with 13 points to go with six rebounds, as did backup guard Trey Bonham who provided a spark of the bench on his way to 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists over 20 reserve minutes. FSU built its 19-point lead in the first half behind 48-percent. Florida, which had not won a road game in the series since 2012, scored 30 of the first 35 points out of the locker room, hitting 13 of its first 21 shots, but also forcing FSU into eight turnovers over the first eight minutes without committing any. Just like that, UF turned a 17-point halftime deficit into an 11-point lead, 59-48, barely out of the second media timeout. The Seminoles managed to cut the lead five with 4:30 to go on a driving layup over Castleton by guard Cameron Mills (21 points, 5 rebounds), but the Gators took the margin back to nine and finished from there by going 25-for-31 from the free-throw line (80.6 percent).
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Bonham, the 6-foot junior transfer from Virginia Military Institute, struggled to make an impact through the season's first three games, but he was a factor Friday. His shooting line wasn't great (2-for-8 from the floor, 1-for-5 from deep), but he mostly took care of the ball and went six of seven from the free-throw line.
STAGGERING STATISTIC: Oh-for-10 to start the game from 3 is tough for any team to recover from, especially when that team is also starting five of 15 from the 2-point area, but a 37-5 run bridging the two halves (UF scored the final bucket of the first) made those ugly first-half offensive numbers a mere memory.
UP NEXT: It only gets tougher for Florida (2-2) OR (3-1), which will have the weekend off before prepping for the Thanksgiving Week trip to Portland, Ore., and three games in the Nike Invitational (aka "PK80"). The Gators will fly out Tuesday with their first game set for Thursday afternoon against Xavier (3-1), which fell 80-79 at home Friday night against Indiana. The Musketeers, now coached by Sean Miller, ended UF's 2021-22 season last March in with a second-round NIT blowout at Cincinnati. Depending on how successful the Gators are in Portland, they could have dates there against Duke and Gonzaga, like they did in the PK80 five years ago. Either way, Friday night began a run of the most difficult stretch of the non-league schedule.
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