TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — They were positively punk'd in the first half.
The Florida Gators left the floor for intermission Friday night down 17 on the road against rival Florida State, having been out-worked and out-hustled by an out-manned opponent playing with just six scholarship players, while clanging shot after shot, whether in close or beyond the 3-point line.
"It was pretty high-energy in there," fifth-year senior forward
Colin Castleton said of UF locker room at the break and, specifically, the mood and words of Coach
Todd Golden. "I can't repeat everything that was said, but we understood the assignment coming into the second half."
Golden called for a redo. He ordered up full-court pressure and told his players to make the Seminoles — not the best shooting or ball-handling team — work for everything and make them uncomfortable.
So how'd that work out?
UF scored 33 of the first 38 points of the second half, with Castleton accounting for 13 of them, and the Gators boat-raced the Seminoles out of the Tucker Center en route to 76-67 victory that marked the program's first road victory in the series since 2012. Castleton, the 6-foot-11, two-time All-Southeastern Conference selection, finished with 25 points and nine rebounds, while guard
Will Richard added 13 points and six boards and backup guard
Trey Bonham pitched in 11 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals.
When it was over, the Gators (3-1) went from shooting 27.6 percent in the first half, including 1-for-12 from the arc (8.3 percent), to 51.6 in the second half and, defensively, forcing 11 turnovers after the break and converting them into 15 points.
Oh, and they'd also pulled off the fourth-largest comeback in program history, including the second-largest on the road.
"We're not a big full-court pressure team and I've never been a big full-court pressure coach," Golden said. "But certain games call for certain things."
Junior guard Trey Bonham (2) is only six feet tall, but his energy and fight was a huge in the Gators flipping the game Friday at FSU.
Over the first eight minutes of the second half, the Seminoles (0-4) had eight turnovers, while the Gators had none.
"We just wanted to kind of chip away at the lead," Castleton said.
They did better than that. Four nights after a disappointing home defeat against Florida Atlantic, the Gators appeared to have let that bad game bleed into this one. Or, as Bonham put it, "We were playing soft."
But instead of wallowing in their first-half woes, UF positively pounced and rather than chip away at the FSU lead the Gators scored the first nine points of the period in just over two minutes to cut the margin in half.
"Everybody just bought into what Coach Golden wanted us to do," Richard said.
An old-fashion 3-point play by FSU guard Cameron Mills (21 points, 5 rebounds, 6 turnovers) momentarily took the lead back to 12, but then came a 14-point blitz by the Gators — 10 of them from Castleton — as the visitors surged in front, by three, to the groans of the home crowd.
A steal and run-out slam by forward Cameron Corhen stopped the hemorrhaging but not the bleeding. UF led 49-48 inside 13 minutes to go, but then Castleton got a 3-point play, Richard scored in transition, sophomore forward
Alex Fudge drove for a nasty, posterizing baseline dunk and Richard hit a corner 3-ball for another 10-point blitz that put UF up 11 barely two minutes later.
Again, so much for chipping away.
The Gators brought a buzz saw.
"You have to give credit to Florida for just going out and doing what they had to do in the second half, putting themselves in a position to win," said FSU coach Leonard Hamilton, now in his 21st season, following a second straight loss to the Gators after winning seven in a row from 2014-20. "It's not easy going on the road, being down 17 at the half, and trying to figure out a way to win. Got to give them credit for their focus, their consistency throughout the game. We have tremendous respect for Florida's program. We've given it our best shot. We had the upper hand the last couple of years, and rivalries don't like that."
Coaches don't like have their rosters whacked in-season, either, but that's exactly what Hamilton, now 11-10 against UF, is fighting through, what with five of his rotation players sidelined either by injury or suspension. The Seminoles started the season with a trio of losses to mid-major programs — against Stetson, at Central Florida and Monday at Troy — but appeared well on their way to snapping the skid and regaining their edge against the Gators.
Their lead was 19 with less than a minute to go in the first half.
The UF bench celebrates the final moments of Friday's big road win.
"I thought we were well prepared for this game, but we didn't play like it in the first half. We were on our heels and not aggressive enough," Golden said. "We addressed it at halftime and, obviously, changed a couple things. Defensively, we tried to turn up the heat a little bit."
The final numbers will show Florida finished at 40-percent shooting for the game and just 3-for-17 from the free-throw line (17.6 percent). Those digits, though, don't even tell half the story.
Because the second half
was the story.
"I've been in a game like that. I've been on the other side of it and it's not fun," said Golden, who thoroughly savored his first taste of rivalry that dates to 1951. "I'm incredibly proud of the way our guys competed, stuck together and kept belief throughout all 40 minutes."
