A large part of Saturday’s game felt eerily similar to the only other two noon tipoffs of the season against Georgia and Vanderbilt several weeks ago. The Florida Gators basketball team was just sluggish throughout several stretches in the game against Texas A&M.
The Gators looked at a loss for a source of energy. It felt like a game Florida simply wasn’t going to be able to do enough in, after pouring out so much energy over the previous five-game stretch of wins by double figures.
Florida did start the game at a pretty good pace, going up by as many as 11 with a 24-13 lead with time winding down in the first half. That’s when the Gators got too comfortable. That 11-point lead turned into a tie game within a matter of five minutes, as the Aggies went on a 14-3 run.
The Gators managed to take a 29-27 lead to the locker room, but they started the second half the same way they finished the first. Cold as ice. Florida was 2-for-14 from the field to start the half, which opened the door for Texas A&M to take a four-point lead at the 11:33 mark.
Florida responded out of the break with six straight makes from the field and nine of 11 to practically put the game out of reach for the Aggies, who looked to be running out of gas on the floor. The Gators came away with a 71-62 win to bring the streak to six consecutive wins and move to a 10-2 SEC record, which surpasses last season’s conference win total of nine.
The Gators came out with what looked to be a new offensive strategy after the 11:33 timeout, but it turns out what Mike White said to the team in the huddle had nothing to do with the offense at all. It was about defense, but that is what has worked for Florida all season. The Gators are the most successful when they can create good offensive possessions from great defensive stops.
“It was more about defense, to be honest with you,” White said. “You guys might frown upon that, but as much as we couldn’t get it going offensively, I saw a little bit of an energy drop and a lack of communication on the defensive end. The message was, ‘Let’s continue to play defense at the highest possible level and we’ll fall into a couple turnovers, we’ll fall into a couple long rebounds that get us out in transition’. Offensively, other than, ‘Hey guys, shots are gonna fall, keep taking the shots you’re gonna take. We’re gonna get ours offensively. We’re gonna win the game with some stops’. That was the only message offensively.”
Justin Leon led the Gators offensively, with 18 points on 7-for-15 from the field and 4-for-8 from three. He started the game off hot, hitting all three of his shots in the first few minutes to score seven of Florida’s first nine points. He tailed off for the rest of the half but took a huge part in the comeback run late in the game. Leon also tacked on five rebounds to go along with his great day offensively.
“This was the second or third one that if Justin doesn’t sprint into a couple of threes, we probably don’t do enough offensively. He’s in the gym as much as anyone we have. It’s like he’s a machine, and he also plays like it. It’s like clockwork. Every day when practice is over, we all have routines. Justin’s routine is, he gets up a ton of shots with those managers … He’s not leaving the gym until he gets a certain amount of makes in, and I don’t know what that number is. I’ve left him alone. He’s done it going back to last year, and he’s turned himself into a shooter. This is a guy that was playing center on his high school team before he went to a junior college. He had no Division-I scholarship offers. It’s really a great story.”
John Egbunu had a nice game on both ends of the court, as he recorded his first double-double of the season. He was the main force inside, with backup center Kevarrius Hayes having an off-day for the Gators. Egbunu was a presence defensively with 10 rebounds and two blocks while fouling one time in the game, something he has struggled with at times.
He was 4-for-5 from the field with a couple of slams and 3-for-4 from the foul line to put up 11 points. Egbunu, who has the team’s second-highest number of turnovers (40) this season, did not turn the ball over once in the game.
“I thought he made really solid decisions, and maybe it was because he got a couple early that got him going,” said White. “He didn’t press. He didn’t force the issue. I thought he was the player of the game for us. We gave him the game ball, and he only took five shots. That’s a big positive that he can learn from.”
Chris Chiozza and Canyon Barry also picked up double-digits off the bench for Florida, leading the Gators to a 27-6 advantage in points off the bench. Chiozza tacked on 11, mostly from the foul line, as he was 8-for-11 from the line in the game. His only points from the field came on a three-pointer late in Florida’s second half run.
Barry picked up 12 points on a 3-for-9 day from the field, including 2-for-7 from beyond the arc. He was perfect, once again, from the free-throw line, at 4-for-4. His 39 made free-throws in a row set a new school-record and moved his percentage to 89.7 percent on the year, moving him a few tenths closer to reaching his goal of 90 percent from the line.
The Gators go back on the road next week, with their first game of the week coming at Auburn on Tuesday. The Tigers hold a 16-8 record this season but are below .500 in the SEC with a 5-6 record. While Auburn has struggled in the conference, White said he will be happy if his team can go in and compete even for just a one-point win on the road.