PORTLAND, Ore. — The 29-point margin of defeat Sunday night was the largest by a Florida basketball team in nearly 24 years. The West Virginia Mountaineers had their way with the Gators in running away with an 84-55 victory in the consolation bracket of the Phil Knight Legacy at a mostly empty Chiles Center. 

WVU was in command for most of the game, thanks to a fast start and startlingly difficult foul trouble for UF. The Mountaineers left no doubt as to where the outcome was headed by opening the second half with a 20-2 run that basically put the game away, as they went to shoot 50 percent for the period versus the Gators' 29 percent after the break, including 1-for-9 from the 3-point line. 

It was ugly. Historically ugly, in that it marked UF's worst loss since a 91-55 knee-capping on Feb. 10, 1999 in Billy Donovan's third season. That happens sometimes in basketball. 

But there was more to the loss that troubled Coach Todd Golden than the final score or his team's struggles on the offensive and defensive ends. 

"We haven't played great all the time, but this was the first time we didn't compete well enough," Golden said. "That's something we have to address and do a better job of." 

Forward Tre Mitchell scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while guard Erik Stevenson had 15 points and seven boards to lead the Mountaineers (6-1), who also pounded the Gators (4-3) on the boards, 49-28, and turned 14 turnovers into 20 points.  WVU built a 16-point lead in the first half, in good part because UF fouled and fouled and fouled some more. The Mountaineers were in the seven-foul bonus less than seven minutes into the game and the 10-foul double-bonus (at which point West Virginia had been whistled for only three) with 11:19 to play in the period. Before the half was over, Florida's leading scorer/rebounder Colin Castleton had three fouls and his backup, Jason Jitoboh, had four. 

Castleton never found any sort of groove (really, none of the Gators did) on his way scoring just three points — equaling his low in a UF uniform — to go with five rebounds. 

"It was a very difficult game. It was very physical on both ends. Unfortunately, it was our two bigs that paid the price in terms of getting us in foul trouble and it took us out of our rhythm," Golden said. "Colin is really important to us. We need him on the floor for us to be successful. We also need him to be able to battle through foul trouble and play better through adversity."

Guard Trey Bonham, who led the team in scoring with 23 points in the first-round loss Thursday against Xavier and again with 19 points in the second-round win over Oregon State, finished with just three points and was 0-for-9 from the floor. Fifth-year point guard Kyle Lofton led the Gators with 17 points. 

The Mountaineers led by 16 in the first half, at 37-21, with just over five minutes remaining, when the Gators looked showed their most fight of the game. Guard Will Richard (8 points, 3 rebounds) converted an old-time 3-point play to start a run of 12-4 to end the half, with Lofton accounting for seven of those points. 

The margin was just eight, 41-33, and UF took some momentum to the locker room. 

WVU, though, opened the second half with a 3-pointer by forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. (13 points) and one free throw from Stevenson to go back up a dozen. After Lofton made a pull-up jumper to bring the lead back to 10, guard Kedrian Johnson dropped a 3 and started a WVU punch of 14 consecutive points that put the Mountaineers up 26 with just under 15 minutes to go.

The margin grew as high as 31. 

"We were soft on the ball, weren't in good position help-wise and I think we were a little caught off guard by their quickness and athleticism and just weren't able to settle ourselves," Golden said. "We were shifting lineups and it was a game we just could never be ourselves."

Especially, for whatever reason, the competing part. 

"There may have been a couple calls in the first half that went against us that could have gone our way and maybe could have changed things," Golden said. "But we did a very poor job of handling that adversity and fighting through it."