Playing a struggling Ole Miss team sitting near the bottom of the SEC the Gators took no mercy, controlling the game and coming away with a 79-64 win. With Florida’s NCAA Tournament hopes looking like a distant possibility it would have been easy for them to take the Rebels lightly and come out flat but instead they grabbed a double-digit first half lead and never looked back, winning comfortably. Myreon Jones led the way for the Gators with 15 points though there were plenty of players who had positive games with five players finishing in double digits.
Rainesville
Three-point shooting hasn’t been a strength for the Gators this season but that wasn’t the case Wednesday as they were raining down threes finishing 10-17 (59%) from beyond the arc. Myreon Jones led the way going 5-7 from three, something extremely encouraging considering his shot hasn’t looked quite the same since two years ago when he was at Penn State. Kowacie Reeves (2-4) also was a spark off the bench and hit some big shots, making Florida’s offense operate a whole lot smoother. It was clear Ole Miss’ game plan was to double team Colin Castleton on the low block and get the ball out of his hands and Florida’s ability to make shots punished this Rebels’ strategy. The Gators have waited all season long to heat up from deep–and better late than never.
Scary Situation
Star center Colin Castleton was forced to leave Wednesday’s game with a wrist injury and the severity of it isn’t yet known. Castleton has been Florida’s leader on both sides of the floor and if he were to miss any amount of time it would be devastating for the team so seeing him head to the locker room was a scary sight. Jason Jitoboh was tasked with picking up a lot more minutes in the second half to make up for the absence of Castleton and he performed admirably, and perhaps what was most impressive was the fact that he was able to come in cold and play more minutes than he’s used to and keep up from a cardio standpoint. All eyes will be on Castleton as we await an update on the injury.
Things To Work On
One area that coach Todd Golden was unhappy with even with the win was defensive rebounding as Ole Miss came away with 16 offensive rebounds. Many of these came before Castleton left the game so it can’t be blamed on missing their best rebounder, and much of the responsibility was on Florida’s wings who fell asleep in box out situations and allowed Rebels to go untouched to the offensive glass. Rebounding hasn’t been a strength for the Gators who are somewhat undersized in a lot of SEC matchups but against Ole Miss the expectation would be that they would have held their own a little bit better. Part of the reason the offensive rebounds were so frustrating to Golden was that the Gators’ first shot defense was excellent–and they allowed the Rebels to stay in the game with these second chance opportunities.
Final Thoughts
Wins are hard to get in the SEC and the Gators deserve credit for taking care of business in this one, especially playing for essentially a half without Colin Castleton. Right now the focus will be the status of Castleton who may end up missing multiple games with the injury. The Gators won’t have a lot of time to dwell on it with a must-win game against Arkansas coming up on Saturday.