The Florida Gators basketball team pulled out a win in its toughest test of the year so far against St. Bonaventure on Thursday night. St. Bonaventure was on a huge run to tie the game at 66 with 1:37 to go and it looked like Florida was completely out of gas. A couple of Canyon Barry free-throws sent the Gators surging back to win the game 73-66.
Florida played up and down the entire game. Every time the Gators got an offensive rhythm going and looked like they were going to put the game away, the Bonnies drained a few key shots and were right back in it. Florida led by 10-or-more four different times in the game, and even led by 15 at one point, but could not hold a lead.
“I thought that probably 30 of the 40 minutes we were pressing offensively,” said Mike White. “We were trying to hit grand slams. We tried to slow our guys down a little bit and call some different quick hitters just to slow us down and I’m not sure that was the right answer either. We just weren’t who we’ve been. We’re searching a little offensively right now.”
Florida uncharacteristically turned the ball over 17 times on the night. St. Bonaventure also turned it over 17 times, but the turnover margin is a battle the Gators take pride in and win more times than not. The Bonnies came away with 23 points off turnovers in the game. “Boy, they got their hands on a lot of basketballs,” White said. “Every time that we showed a lack of poise, making a quick decision on an outlet or drove it a little bit too deep or jumped up in the air before we quite knew what we were gonna do with it, it seems like they made us pay for all of those mistakes.”
Not only did St. Bonaventure cause problems for Florida’s offense, the defense had its hands full as well. The Bonnies might just have the best duo of guards the Gators will face this season, in Matt Mobley and Jaylen Adams. Mobley put up 28 points, while Adams had 20 of his own. Mobley and Adams combined to score 19 of St. Bonaventure’s final 21 points, which took the game from a comfortable 60-45 Florida lead to a 66-66 tie.
Mobley was fouled on a layup and completed the three-point play to tie the game, Egbunu returned it with a missed shot on Florida’s end and opened the door for the Bonnies to take the lead. Adams could not capitalize and missed a three at the other end. Barry was fouled as he gathered a strong defensive rebound in traffic and that’s when the momentum shifted back in Florida’s favor. Barry was 5-of-6 from the foul line on the night, but the two underhand free throws he made under pressure at the end were by far his most important.
“If he goes one-for-two there, I’m not sure you’re quite as settled in,” said White. “If you go there and you strike-out at the line, now those nerves really settle in and those regrets creep in. ‘My goodness, we were up 15, how did this happen?’ as opposed to staying in the moment and thinking about the next stop you’ve gotta get. Our guys are human beings. It was a very emotional game like that.”
The game was still far from over with 56 seconds left to play. John Egbunu and Devin Robinson made sure to take away all hope from the Bonnies as they followed Barry’s free-throws with two dunks in a row, both of which were started by great defensive plays by Chris Chiozza.
“Credit our guys for being resilient, showing a little character, a little maturity,” White said. “Again, that thing’s tied and it could’ve gone the other way very easily and our guys made some big defensive plays down the stretch.”