GAINESVILLE, Fla. — One week ago, Florida fell behind by 16 against Oklahoma State and came back to win. Three days ago, the deficit at Missouri was was nine with eight minutes to go. The Gators won that one, too. On Saturday, they put themselves there again. Ole Miss, buoyed by good 3-point shooting and dominant play on the glass, staked itself to a nine-point halftime advantage.
In other words, the Gators had 'em right where they wanted 'em.
OK, not exactly, but again that was the situation — not an enviable one, but an all too familiar one — and once again they had a rallying answer. This time, with leading stat-stuffer Colin Castleton in the middle of it all.
The 6-foot-11, 240-pound Castleton, sidelined the previous three games with a shoulder injury, returned to score a team-high 17 points, grab seven rebounds and block three shots over a career high-equaling 34 minutes during UF's 62-57 win at Exactech Arena. In winning a third straight in come-from-behind fashion, the Gators (15-8, 5-5) vanquished that nine-point deficit midway through the second half, only to give away a six-point cushion in the final three-plus minutes, as the Rebels (12-11, 3-7) sent the game in overtime.
In the extra period, point guard Tyree Appleby, the hero Wednesday at Mizzou, knocked down seven of eight free throws, including two with 3.3 seconds to seal the deal. Castleton had four points and two rebounds in the OT.
"It felt great to be out there with my teammates again. My brothers," Castleton said.
It was great, of course, to win the game. Appleby followed his 10-for-10 free-throw performance Wednesday by going 7-for-8, all in overtime, on his way to 10 points and a UF career-best 10 assists for his first double-double as a Gator. Graduate forward/guard Phlandrous Fleming Jr. had 10 points, seven rebounds and three steals, while UF shot nearly 45 percent in the second half and overtime after just 36 percent (and 2-for-13 from 3) in the first half, as the Gators (once again) were forced to play from way behind.
Niels Lane(44), Brandon McKissic (23) and Keyontae Johnson cheer their teammates on during the second-half comeback.
Despite a third straight victory, UF coach Mike White wasn't ready to embrace a business model that puts his team in a hefty hole every game and forces them to dig from it.
"There's some negative to it," White deadpanned. "But the positive to it: adversity, adversity, adversity. I wear that out, I know, but the resiliency, the confidence to stay the course, the increased mental toughness? ... ."
Yeah, he likes that. Especially in victory.
The Rebels, who lost starting point guard Daeshun Ruffin to a season-ending knee injury Wednesday but got back leading scorer Jarkel Joiner from injury Saturday, used an 11-0 run to take control of the first half. They hit six of their first 12 attempts from the 3-point line, but did every bit as much damage on the boards. When the two teams broke for halftime, Mississippi had a 24-11 advantage on the glass, including 11-0 on the offensive end (and an 11-0 edge in second-chance points).
Mississippi was looking very much like the team that beat No. 25 Ole Miss on the road four nights earlier, while Florida was slogging away in its recent first-half pattern.
"We knew as a team we weren't defending as well as we needed to in the first half," sophomore guard Niels Lane said after his first career start. "It was just like the Oklahoma State game."
It was, but so was the home team's reaction. UF scored the first seven points of the second half, and used an 11-1 run — while the Rebels missed their first field-goal tries — to start the period and grab its first lead since the opening eight minutes when Castleton hit two free throws with 11:23 to play for a 32-31 advantage.
"Those last 10 minutes of the second half, I'm not sure we could have played any harder," White said.
In those last 10, there were 10 lead changes and four ties. The Gators looked in good shape when Myreon Jones (8 points) dropped a late-clock 3-pointer to push his team up by six, 48-42, with 3:35 to play, but the Rebels scored the final six points of the half, the last two coming on a driving tear-drop floater by guard Tye Fagan (15 points, 5 rebounds), as the shot-clock expired, with 54 seconds to go.
Both teams missed shots in the waning seconds to win it and the game went to OT tied at 48.
Senior forward Myreon Jones(0) made a pair of key 3-pointers in the second half, including one in overtime.
It was 50-all just over a minute in when Appleby hit his second pair of free throws for a two-point lead. At Mississippi's end, 7-foot center Nysier Brooks (11 points, 9 rebounds) missed the front end of a one-and-one with 3:36 showing. Castleton answered with a layup, off a nifty give-and-go pass from Appleby, for a four-point lead. That started a run of nine straight points, with Jones bombing a 3 with 41.7 left, that had the Gators up 59-50.
Twice, though, the Rebels got back within. Both times, Appleby made free throws; one of two for a four-point edge with 14.4 seconds to go; two with 3.3 left to wrap the win.
Another come-from-behind win. The best way the Gators know how.
Just not the preferred way.
"You want to be the best version of yourselves for 40 minutes, of course," White said.
As Castleton works his way back into shape, maybe the Gators can get there. Their chances of doing so with him are better, for sure.
"It felt a little weird. I hadn't played 5-for-5 contact in a while," said Castleton, who praised the work of athletic trainer David Werner, who guided him through rehab and ultimately made the final call to clear the UF star. "Once I started getting in the zone, I wasn't really worried about the shoulder. I just played basketball. I do what I do."
