Missouri had now answer for Tyrese Samuel in the post Wednesday night, as the UF grad forward tallied a career-high 28 points and made 12 of his 16 field-goal tries.
Vets, Bigs Come Up Big for Gators
Wednesday, February 28, 2024 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Missouri came to town shooting just over 42 percent against Southeastern Conference opponents this season. Oh, and the Tigers were also winless in league play through 14 games.
Yet there they were, trading blows and baskets, with No. 24 Florida on its home court Wednesday night, erasing a double-digit second-half deficit after a weird turn of events scratched the Gators' scoring leader from the game. Where would they turn for points, especially against a zone defense that was causing problems?
"We just kind of went with the hot hand," UF coach Todd Golden.
The oldest hands, actually.
Forward Tyrese Samuel and point guard Zyon Pullin, the team's two grad transfers, combined to score 23 of the Gators' final 25 points, including the last nine as the home team staved off the persistent, upset-minded Tigers for an 83-74 victory at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. Samuel finished with a career-high 28 points and Pullin added 21, with three of his four 3-pointers coming in the second half, two of them after junior guard Walter Clayton Jr. was disqualified from the game after a fourth foul and subsequent technical for arguing the call.
Seven-foot-one sophomore center Micah Handlogten had 12 points and 12 rebounds, as the Gators (20-8, 10-5) won their fifth of six, their ninth of the previous 11 and remained very much in the mix for a top-five seed and double-bye at the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn., on March 13-17, currently locked in a three-way tie for fourth place with Kentucky and Auburn (and one game out of third place).
Micah Handlogten (3) had his fourth double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
"I think it was just staying together and trying to keep making the right plays," said Pullin, who was left to navigate an effective Missouri zone defense (a 1-3-1 that converted to a 2-3 on the wings) with Clayton out of the game. "They tried to mix it up a little bit and I think we just kept taking what they gave us and were able to put the ball in the basket."
Especially the two veterans.
Samuel, the grad-transfer forward from Seton Hall, put down 12 of his 16 field-goal attempts ("A grown man," Golden said. "He was incredible."), while Handlogten went six of eight from the floor. Combined, they were 18 of 24 overall – that's 75 percent – and the big reason their team shot 62.5 percent in the second half. UF needed to shoot that well because the Tigers, who came in ranked 11th in the SEC in field-goal percentage, torched the Gators for 61.5 percent in the period, rallying from an 11-point hole to twice draw within one, and trail by only four with less than four minutes to go.
"Poise was key," said Samuel, whose double-double was his 10th on the season and helped his team to a 38-27 advantage on the glass, including 13-7 on the offensive end on the way to 14 second-chance points. "We didn't panic. I had all the confidence that we still were going to win the game. The shots weren't falling for us in the beginning, but at the end they started to fall."
Did they ever. How 'bout seven of the last eight and 11 of their final 13. All but one of those 11 came courtesy of Samuel and Pullin, as the Gators used better ball movement, especially in feeding Samuel in the middle, to break down the Tigers' zone.
Guard Zyon Pullin(0) went 4-for-5 from the 3-point line and made all three of his long ones in the second half.
"They were just awesome," Golden said of his veteran duo. "In tight moments, you want your experienced guys to step up and shoulder a little more of the load. We did a good job putting Tyrese in the high post and getting him catches in the paint, where he's just a great decision-maker and a really good playmaker."
Both teams shot an ineffective 37 percent in the first half, with Florida taking a 37-28 lead to the locker room. After the Tigers (8-20, 0-15), behind their converting zone and timely buckets from the perimeter trio of Sean East II (20 points), Tamar Bates (15) and guard Nick Honor (18), closed to within a point, the Gators went on a run of 10 straight points to open a 51-40 lead that was broken up by a steal and transition basket by Anthony Robinson II and foul by Clayton in the act.
Clayton, with 13 points and three 3s at the time, didn't like the call. The official didn't like the protest. The ensuing technical was his fifth foul and sent the UF scoring leader at 16.9 per game to the bench for good with 14:58 to go.
The Gators had to close ranks.
"It wasn't anything that was verbally said," Handlogten said of the mood on the UF bench. "It was just kind of like a mutual understanding amongst all of us."
The Gators had to solve the zone minus one of their zone busters.
"The zone helped us out," Mizzou coach Dennis Gates said.
When 7-5 Connor Vanover drained a 3-pointer (just his fifth in 21 attempts this season), the Tigers trailed 66-65 with 5:27 to go and had hit five straight shots. The already-antsy O'Dome got antsier.
That's when the "Samuel-Pullin Show" commenced.
First came a Samuel post-up, then, after a rare second-half defensive stop, a Pullin mid-range jumper got the lead back to five. It was four, 74-70, inside three minutes left when Samuel drove down the right side of the lane and threw in a bank shot. At the Missouri end, a loose ball that went out of bounds was first awarded to the Tigers just inside two minutes, but overturned upon review in the Gators' favor. That UF possession ended with a Pullin floater and eight-point lead.
After a driving jumper by East, it was Samuel again, this time after breaking the press on a feed from Will Richard in transition, finishing an old-time 3-point play for a nine-point lead with 1:10 to go that grew to 11 with two Pullin free throws 10 seconds later.
File this one away with Mississippi State, Georgia and LSU as UF home games that got way too close for comfort, but also fell the Gators' way.
"Sometimes you need games like this," Samuel said.
Golden said he could do without.
"I like to use them as teaching experiences and it's a lot easier to do that after a win than a loss," he said. "We're a very good team, ranked two weeks in a row, with some big-time wins, but we're not the No. 1 team in America and we've got a lot of improving to do."
And with back-to-back games looming – Saturday at No. 18 South Carolina, then back home Tuesday night to face No. 14 and SEC-leading Alabama on "Senior Night – against a pair of teams the Gators are chasing in the conference.
"I think it brings us back to reality a little bit, shows us our weaknesses and what we need to keep getting better at," Pullin said. "Not everything is going to go great all the time."
When that happens to the Gators (even short-handed, apparently), they tend to figure things out.
