Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Once again, the start of the game was a debacle. Pretty much like Florida's previous four Southeastern Conference games. This time, the Gators surrendered the game's first 11 points, playing give-away against fast-breaking and 20th-ranked Missouri on the way to turning the ball over a staggering 14 times in the first half. 

And yet when UF went to the locker room Saturday afternoon the game was tied. 

"We're really consistent at being bad the first four to six minutes of the game," UF coach Todd Golden said. "But we played great the last 34 minutes."

Yes, they did. Fifth-year forward Colin Castleton tallied his third double-double of the season, with 16 points and 13 rebounds, while guard Will Richard dropped four 3-pointers on the way to a season-high 18 points, and the Gators out-scored the Southeastern Conference's highest-scoring team in the second half — and on the final scoreboard — on the way to a 73-64 victory at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. 

In winning a third straight for the first time this season, UF shot 52 percent and scored 45 points after intermission in great part because the Gators (10-7, 3-2) took much better care of the basketball after halftime. With only six turnovers over the final 20 minutes, the home team was able to hit 15 of 29 field-goal tries, including six of 13 from the 3-point line, while holding the Tigers (13-4, 2-3) to their lowest point total of the season.  "We talked [at halftime] about scoring it before we go down the court and that if we take care of the ball we can get whatever we want [on offense]," UF fifth-year guard Myreon Jones said after scoring eight points, grabbing four rebounds, dishing five assists and turning the ball over once in 35 minutes. "We were saying we had like, 15, 13 turnovers, but we were tied, so we just took care of it [in the second half] and beat them." 

It was pretty much that simple, but it was also pretty much amazing that the Gators and Tigers were even after UF gave the ball away 13 times against a Missouri offense that is one of the nation's most efficient (5th nationally coming in) and fastest (22nd in tempo) in the country; one that was averaging a league-high 85.7 points per game. Florida countered the Mizzou attack with its ever-improving and evolving defense; one that only gave up eight points on those 13 first-half turnovers, which speaks to effort, commitment, focus and (this is key) toughness in the face of adversity. 

Some of those things weren't very good earlier in the season, especially against the better teams the Gators faced. 

"Our team has done a much better job the last couple weeks of finishing possessions, not allowing one mistake to bleed into a second, third or fourth mistake," Golden said. "We had plenty of mistakes taking care of the ball in the first half, but we got back defensively and walled up at the rim or got the ball back. We have really good defenders, but I feel also the team is maturing with our competitive nature."

Barely three minutes into the game, the Tigers led 9-0 and had hit all four of their field-goal attempts, while the Gators had attempted just one shot and turned the ball over twice. The Mizzou lead was 11-0 when sophomore wing Kowacie Reeves finally got UF on the scoreboard with a driving layup in traffic. 

It was 13-2 when freshman guard Riley Kugel hit a pair of 3s and Richard added another to start the Gators on their methodical comeback. When Kugel, who either equaled or set career bests with 13 points and six rebounds (also five turnovers), stole and pass raced to a run-out layup it was a two-point game and Richard's two free throws pulled UF even for the first time with 4:19 to play in half. 

The score was 28-all when the two teams headed for the locker room. 

"Those first few minutes we were rushing, letting them speed up the game, get in transition," Richard said. "So [we] just slowed down, fell back to our scout, and just executed." In the second half, so did the Tigers, who were on their way to shooting 50 percent for the period  and out-scoring the Gators 42-26 in the paint for the game. Missouri, led by forward Kobe Brown's 21 points, six rebounds and five steals, attacked the Florida defense and got a bunch of buckets in close on the way to making 15 of 30 shots in the second. 

In fact, Tigers coach Dennis Gates said afterward his team should have totaled more paint points via free throws from fouls that weren't called. 

"We're a physical team, they're a physical team. There's no way to score 42 points in the paint and come away with 15 foul shots. That's impossible," said Gates, in his first year at Mizzou after the last three seasons at Cleveland State. "If we go back and look at 42 points in the paint, it's a lot, but we should have had 60 by way of multiple free throws, as well."  

Whatever the case, the Tigers also could have helped their cause by making more open 3s (they had their share). Instead, the Tigers went just two of nine from distance over the final 20 minutes, while the Gators dropped six of 13, including one from Jones with 11 minutes to go for a one-point lead and — after a couple back-to-back buckets in close from Castleton, who eclipsed 1,000 points for his UF career Saturday, on great feeds from Jones — another from Richard four minutes later that put Florida up by seven for its largest lead. 

The Gators' margin swelled to as big as 10 with two minutes left, thanks to four straight free throws, two each from fifth-year point guard Kyle Lofton (8 points, 4 steals) and Richard. Twice the Tigers cut the margin back to six — a two-possession game — but Lofton hit a step-back jumper with 51 seconds left and after another Missouri basket it was Jones going 2-for-2 from the line with 37.4 seconds to go for the eight-point cushion again. 

UF's defensive stop on the next possession put the game away and sent Golden fist-pumping down the Gators' sidelines, extolling the crowd to join in. 

Florida was at 7-7 overall and 0-2 in the league just a week earlier. 

It was a good last eight days for the Gators. 

"It's big, being able to trust [the process]," Castleton said. "We were at .500. We all just came together and said we got to figure this out; whatever we have to do to get it done to win games is the biggest thing. We had a couple close [losses], and we can't get those back. We can only get what's ahead of us and that was our goal. That was our focus -- and we won a couple good ones."