Florida Gators basketball back on track with Arkansas win

The post-Kentucky hangover did not make an appearance on Wednesday night, as the 12th ranked Florida Gators handled the Arkansas Razorbacks with relative ease at home. Florida was ready to play from the start, with all four seniors getting the call to start in their final game in the O’Dome.
After taking an early lead in which seniors, Kasey Hill, Canyon Barry, Justin Leon and Schuyler Rimmer all got on the board, the Gators would never allow the Razorbacks to come within less than six points of the lead.
“It was good,” Leon said of Florida’s quick start. “It gave us, I guess, you know, some momentum, early momentum, which is what you need to win a lot of these games. That’s really a big focal point, you know, trying to start out hot, and I think that’s what we did tonight.”
While Arkansas went on two separate runs in the middle and late second half, Florida would quickly answer to shut down all of the visiting team’s momentum. The Gators went on to grab a 78-65 win and snap the Razorbacks’ five-game winning streak.
While Florida held a comfortable lead for most of the game, Mike White was still frustrated with the defensive performance of his team during the Arkansas runs. The Gators hang their hats on playing well defensively the entire game, and that is something White, along with a couple of the players, pointed out following the game.
“My throat’s a little sore and I worked up a pretty good sweat,” White said. “To be honest with you, we had a couple pretty volatile timeouts there … I kept getting on our guys about the fact that Arkansas is as dangerous of an offensive team as there is. I mean, they can just go on big spurts, especially in the last five or six games, their offensive numbers are terrific. They have three wings that can just go get 28 on any given night and Moses Kingsley’s Pre-Season SEC Player of the Year. You can’t play to 90 percent energy level and communication level defensively against the Razorbacks or they’re gonna make you pay.”
Luckily for the Gators, the offense provided a couple of sparks at the right times to get the defense back in line. Florida finished the game at 51 percent (29-for-57) from the field and 43 percent (10-for-23) from three.
Canyon Barry led the team on Senior Night with 14 points, while also grabbing four rebounds. Chris Chiozza was right behind with 12 points and five rebounds, while Kasey Hill and KeVaughn Allen each had 12 points and three rebounds.
Along with the well-distributed offensive performance, the Gators finally had some help in replacing John Egbunu. The lack of depth behind Kevarrius Hayes proved to be detrimental for Florida at Kentucky on Saturday, but more guys stepped up on Wednesday to fill the hole.
Hayes played about his usual, steady game, with six points, eight rebounds and three blocks to add onto it. Devin Robinson had eight points, seven rebounds and a block on the night. Schuyler Rimmer also got in for 10 minutes on his senior night.
The two surprises of the night were from Keith Stone, who has been struggling tremendously since coming back from an illness a couple weeks ago, and Gorjok Gak, who was cleared from his ankle injury just before the game.
Gak played eight minutes, finishing with a couple of points and boards and a block in the first playing time he has had since the Missouri game. Stone finally came out of his funk in his nine minutes on the court, as he added eight points, going 3-for-4 from the field and 1-for-1 from three, in his nine minutes.
While Stone’s reemergence was a pleasant surprise for most, White was expecting the redshirt freshman to get back on track. “He showed signs, probably 10 days ago and it’s gotten better and better,” he said. “Before our last game, we thought he might break out of it, because he had a pretty good practice. He hasn’t gotten a lot of opportunities, really over the last couple games, but then, these last two days were his best two practices he’s had in six to eight weeks. We thought it was getting closer and closer. One of these last two days, either yesterday or Monday, he was really, really good, so he’s gaining some confidence back.”
To cap the night off, White allowed his four seniors to take one final curtain call during a timeout in the final minute of the game. The seniors stepped onto the court to thank the crowd for the last time. It was an amazing moment to witness, as each of those players have played a huge role in reshaping the Florida program.
“I’m glad we were in a position that Coach White could allow us to do that,” said Rimmer. “The biggest thing was just getting the win. I think we needed that just to kind of get over the loss against Kentucky. It was a special moment, really glad we were able to get the win and glad we were able to enjoy senior night the right way.”
The Gators will enjoy the season sweep over Arkansas for a short time before setting sights on Vanderbilt. The Commodores handed Florida is only home loss of the season just before the nine-game winning streak. It would be fitting for the Gators to give them a taste of their own medicine and gain some momentum heading into the SEC Tournament, where Florida has clinched a No. 2 seed.