FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The start to the Colin Castleton-less era was pretty good. The finish, not so much.
It took Arkansas about 12 minutes to figure out a reconfigured Florida lineup minus one of the Southeastern Conference's best front court players. The Razorbacks missed eight of their first nine shots and trailed for most of the opening period before getting in the paint and taking advantage of the absence of UF's 6-foot-11 elite (but missing) rim protector.
Reserve forward Jalen Graham scored 14 of his career-high 26 points in the opening period to lead five players into double-figure scoring Saturday, as the Razorbacks raced passed the Gators late in the first half and went full-throttle to start the second on the way to an 84-65 win Saturday afternoon at Bud Walton Arena.
All Castleton could do was watch from the sideline.
"We're obviously kind of in the middle of re-inventing ourselves a little bit," Florida coach Todd Golden said. "That beginning of the second half was ultimately kind of our death blow. The way we're going to have to win these games down the stretch is by putting together a full 40 minutes of great effort as opposed to 30 out of 40, especially in a game like this."
Especially with Castleton's team-highs of 16.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and league-leading 78 blocked shots done for the season.
Graham went 12-for-15 from the floor, while guard and future NBA first-round selection Ricky Counsel IV had 15 points and seven rebounds. Freshman point guard Anthony Black, a projected top-five 2023 NBA Draft pick, tallied 15 points and seven rebounds, while center Makhi Mitchell had a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds and freshman guard Nick Smith Jr., another lottery-pick-in-waiting, was good for 10 points in his first start since a knee injury sidelined him in December.
With all those future NBA guys, the Razorbacks (18-9, 7-7) shot nearly 58 percent for the game. The Gators (14-13, 7-7), losers of four of the previous five and now with two SEC losses of at least 19 points in the same for the first time since 2008, were out-rebounded 40-25 and surrendered 52 points in the paint.
"We fought hard in the first half," said UF freshman guard Riley Kugel, who led his team with 17 points for his fourth consecutive double-figure scoring game. "The second half came and we just let up in the first few minutes and didn't fight as hard as we did in the first half. All our defensive principles went away."
A lot of those principles were with Castleton at the far end of the bench wearing a giant cast protecting the right hand he broke in a fluky moment during the second half of Wednesday night's home win against Ole Miss.
Freshman guard Riley Kugel (24) hit five of his 12 shots from the floor and six of seven free throws.
In his place, the Gators started 6-11, 300-pound senior Jason Jitoboh, who finished with four points, two rebounds and two turnovers over 24 minutes. Jitoboh split time down low with 6-10 freshman Aleks Szymczyk, the seldom-used German project who had played just 15 minutes this season. "Shimmy," as he's known, scored eight points (hitting two of UF's four 3s) and grabbed six rebounds, four steals, an assist and blocked a shot, plus one turnover in 20 minutes. Not bad for is first real taste of college basketball.
"It feels good to play more minutes, but the goal is to win the game," Szymczyk said.
Florida actually led the game for a good portion of the first half, three times going up by five points over the first 11 minutes. The UF margin was four when Arkansas took off on a run of 11 consecutive points while the visitors were missing nine consecutive shots to fall behind by seven, as the packed Walton house called their beloved Hogs.
"They started getting closer shots to the rim and started getting out in transition a little bit," Golden said. "And I just thought our resistance in the paint, even with it being one of our keys [to the scouting report], was not good enough."
Arkansas forward JalenGraham (11) posts UF centerAleks Szymczyk, (13) for two of his career-high 26 points.
[University of Arkansas photo]
The Gators, though, weathered that flurry and trailed by just six, 37-31, at halftime despite shooting 30 percent to the Razorbacks' 56 over the first 20 minutes. Free throws were the difference, with UF going 12-for-16 at the line to help offset its shooting woes to keep the Gators in the game.
The free throws weren't there to start the second half, which proved Florida's downfall.
The Hogs scored 17 of the period's first 19 points — getting more of those "closer shots" Golden referenced — to open up a 21-point lead barely six minutes in that eventually surged to as many as 25 with nine minutes to go. At one point, Arkansas was shooting nearly 68 percent from the floor, but fell back once the heavy subbing from both sides started in the game's final minutes.
"I was pleased with the first 20 [minutes]," Golden said. "I thought we did a great job competing under the circumstances."
Altogether new and difficult circumstances, at that. And they're not going away.
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