Vandy Offense Too Much for Gators

Saturday, February 25

Nashville, TN

6 PM

Florida Gators

14-15,7-9SEC

Vanderbilt

16-13,9-7SEC

Florida

Vanderbilt

Freshman center Aleks Szymczyk (13) and the rest of the Gators had their hands full with Vanderbilt center Liam Robbins (21) and the rest of the Commodores, especially on the offensive end

Vandy Offense Too Much for Gators

Saturday, February 25, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Fifth-year senior point guard Kyle Lofton had logged more than 37 minutes. He'd taken on Vanderbilt's plethora of guards as best he could, finished with his second-highest scoring output of the season and dropped a trio of 3s, his high on the year. It wasn't anywhere near enough.

The Gators, as the 2022-23 season winds to a close with standout forward Colin Castleton on the bench with a broken hand, were once again overmatched Saturday, if not just plain overwhelmed, this time by an efficient and versatile Vanderbilt offense in an 88-72 loss at Memorial Gymnasium.

"With a team like ours, right now, we've got to have ugly wins," Lofton said.

Ugly, lucky, fluky, any kind of wins will do. Lofton, though, was on point with the state of the UF basketball team minus Castleton and thus minus a player who just 10 days earlier (pre-injury) armed the Gators with one of the best low-post players, both offensively and defensively, in the country.

Without Castleton, the Commodores became the third straight opponent to exploit the UF void inside, with 7-foot center Liam Robbins tallying 19 points, nine rebounds and five blocked shots to compliment a lethal perimeter game that put five of his teammates in double figures, dropped 10 3-pointers and shot 52 percent for the game.

Gators point guard Kyle Lofton (11) pulls up for one of his three 3-pointers.

In losing a third in a row, Florida (14-15, 7-9) fell below .500 for the first time this season — and for the first time this late in a season since 1997 — and are now flirting with the program's first losing record since 2014-15, which was Billy Donovan's final campaign on the sidelines.

"Obviously, we're having kind of a tough time right now," UF coach Todd Golden said. "I appreciate our guys and the way they continue to bring a great attitude. They're trying. They're working hard. We're just falling a little short right now."

The first game without Castleton was a week ago at Arkansas, where the Razorbacks rolled 84-65 by shooting nearly 58 percent. The next was Wednesday night, at home against Kentucky, with UF giving the Wildcats fits before they made the plays down the stretch to put the game away. UK shot over 53 percent.

This time it was Vanderbilt (16-13, 9-6), winner of six of the last seven. The game was tight halfway through the opening period — both teams shooting at least 50 percent — when the Commodores' 3-point prowess helped them open a 13-point lead that was cut to 10 at intermission when Lofton drained a 3 with a second to go.

"I felt like we were trying to score with them," Lofton said. "We're not going to outscore anyone. We can't go back and forth. … They were scoring, we were scoring, they were scoring. We got to get stops."

When the teams went to the locker room, Vandy was at 53 percent overall, including seven of 16 from deep. Florida was a near-match from distance (6 of 15), but managed just 39 percent overall. And where the Commodores had a balanced box score with eight guys in the scoring column through 20 minutes, led by Robbins with nine points, Lofton and freshman guard Riley Kugel accounted for 26 of their team's 36 points, with a 13 a piece.

Less than four minutes into the second half, the Vandy advantage had swelled to 16 and UF was playing uphill the rest of the game, managing to get no closer than nine before falling back again by as many as 19.

The Gators were led by a game-high 20 points from freshman guard Riley Kugel, who posted his sixth consecutive double-figure scoring game, and Lofton's 15 points. No other UF player was in double digits.

"I thought our guys came out and really set the tone early on—on both ends of the floor," Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse said after his first sweep of the Florida series in his four seasons with the program. "I thought we were executing really good offensively to start the game. Defensively we took it up another notch in the second half."

Robbins, who destroyed the Gators for a career-high 32 points, plus nine rebounds and four blocks in Vandy's 88-80 win Feb. 11 at Gainesville, was seven of 11 from the floor, hit his only 3 and pretty much had his way against the Castleton-replacement tandem of 6-11, 300-pound senior Jason Jitoboh and 6-10 freshman Aleks Szymczyk, who combined for 13 points, four boards and one block.

UF sophomore forward **Alex Fudge** (3) challenges a 3-pointer attempt by Vandy's Miles Stute.

After Robbins, the Commodores had five others with at least 11 points. Point guard Ezra Manjon carded 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists without a turnover. Guard Tyrin Lawrence had 13 points, seven rebounds and hit both his treys. All five Vandy starters made at least one 3. Backup forward Myles Stute had three.

The Commodores, who hit 12 3s in their win at the O'Dome, finished 42 percent from the arc, but also scored 32 points in the paint, with their guards — Manjon, Lawrence, Trey Thomas — all pitching in with penetration buckets on short jumpers or layups, plus kick-outs to shooters.

It was a pretty familiar scene to what the Gators saw in the first meeting; just like the outcome was familiar to what they've dealt with the last eight days.

Now just two regular-season games remain, followed by a trip back here for the SEC Tournament.

"Keep believing, keep the energy high," sophomore guard Will Richard said.

That's Golden's charge. His team may be down in manpower, but the overall culture he's trying to set in this inaugural season can't be compromised. Especially amid adversity.

"We're not OK with losing. It's not acceptable," Golden said. "With that being said, the only way to get better and improve and give yourself a great chance is to still work hard every day, maintaining a great attitude and holding yourself to a high standard of accountability every day and to not let yourself off the hook. It's easy when times are hard to fracture, point fingers or start trying to place blame. That's not our program. That's not what we're about."