The Gators couldn’t have gotten their season off to a much better start than how they played in the first half against Elon on Tuesday night.
Their ball movement was superb, they got open shots and they buried them at a 51.6-percent clip in the opening 20 minutes. Defensively, they overcame a rough opening five minutes or so to hold the Phoenix to 34.6 percent shooting. They were active with their hands and forced nine turnovers that they converted into 16 points. UF outrebounded Elon by 14.
It all added up to a 47-24 halftime lead for the home team, and the game was essentially over at that point.
Unfortunately, the Gators played like they knew that the game was over in the second half. The energy and enthusiasm that they played with in the first half wasn’t there in the second half. They played with a lack of urgency and limped to the finish line and a 74-61 win.
“I feel like we just let up in all aspects,” Florida center Colin Castleton said. “First half, we brought a lot of energy, playing a lot harder and just came out with more of a will to win. And then the second half, we kind of just let up in all areas, and that’s just on us. We’ve got to work on that. We just talked about that in the locker room, so we’ve just got to fix that.”
Elon outscored Florida 37-27 in the second half. The Gators got stagnant on the offensive end, committed seven turnovers and took a bunch of bad shots. They were way too perimeter-oriented, which resulted in them shooting just a tick over 32 percent in the second half. They went just 4-for-11 from the free-throw line, including seven consecutive misses at one point. They went nearly five minutes without a field goal toward the middle of the half.
“We’ve just been better with decisions with the basketball, hitting singles and not searching for home runs [in practice],” UF coach Mike White said. “We got a little bit out of character there tonight with 16 [assists] to 13 [turnovers]. We’ve got to be better than that.”
Defensively, they had some communication breakdowns and slow rotations, which led to Elon getting some open looks. They also sent them to the free-throw line 18 times, which is more than you’d like to give up in a game, let alone a half. The Phoenix outrebounded them by six in the second half despite not starting a player taller than 6-foot-6, which indicates a lack of focus and drive by the Gators.
“I thought we let our foot off the gas pedal and didn’t play with a lot of maturity down the stretch,” White said. “Played a lot of young guys late, but that’s not an excuse for playing older guys and not finishing, especially defensively. And then, our shot selection just got a little bit out of character for this group to this point.
“We had a couple of ill-advised decisions in transition offense as the place was getting loud, and we’ve got to learn to play at home in front of a great environment.”
Individually, Castleton was the biggest difference in the game. Elon didn’t have anybody that could match his size, physicality and skill at either end of the floor. He used those mismatches to score 18 points (17 in the first half), grab five rebounds and block six shots, a UF record for a season opener.
He also dished a career-high-tying four assists, including one where he led the fast break all the way down the court a la Joakim Noah and passed to a wide-open Tyree Appleby in the right corner for a three.
However, he also tried to do a little too much offensively at times and turned the ball over five times.
“Colin affected some shots at the rim for sure,” White said. “It took him a couple of possessions to get his energy going at the top of the key in terms of pressuring the basketball a little bit. I thought, overall, he was really solid defensively. I thought he forced it a couple of times offensively, trying to dribble through traffic. He kind of had his mind made up. ‘I’m going to go make a play.’ We want him to be really aggressive, but we want him to make really solid decisions while being aggressive.”
He only went 4-for-10 from the free-throw line, which is not typical for him, as he made 78 percent of his free throws last season.
“I’ve got to do better shooting free throws,” Castleton said. “I’ve just got to get back in the gym and work on just shooting a lot of free throws, a lot of reps, getting that muscle memory back. It’s definitely pissed me off a little bit, but we’ll be fine.”
Guard Myreon Jones was the star of the second half, as he scored 15 of the Gators’ 27 points. After going 0-for-3 from beyond the arc in the first half, he knocked down his first four attempts in the second half, the first of which became a four-point play after he made a free throw.
He finished the game with a game-high 20 points on 7-for-14 shooting with six rebounds and three assists in 27 minutes.
“I just let it come to me,” Jones said. “First half, I didn’t really make one, but my teammates at halftime were saying, ‘Just keep being aggressive. We know it’s going to fall. We know how good you are as a shooter, so just keep going.’ I just let it come to me. I did it through the offense we were running. I didn’t try to force it, and we got good looks out of it.”
Forward Anthony Duruji also had a solid game, scoring eight points and pulling down seven rebounds. Appleby put up 14 points, three rebounds and three assists but also committed four turnovers.
The Gators’ first half was about as perfect as an opener can be. They dominated on both ends of the floor and played with the kind of intensity and discipline that’s been missing at times over the past few years. That version of them looked good enough to beat just about anybody in the country.
However, the second half version of them looked disinterested and sloppy and seemed to have some of the same issues that plagued them last year.
“I think that, overall, this team showed what it could potentially be at times, and it also showed what can happen at this level when you’re not playing the right way against a solid mid-major program coached by Mike Schrage, a good friend who does a great job,” White said. “Hats off to those guys, the way that they fought down the stretch.
“I think if we played night in and night out the way that we did in the first 20, we’ll be competitive in most games this year.”
Obviously, it’s a season opener. No team is a finished product yet, and the Gators will improve as the season progresses. But, with No. 20 Florida State visiting the O’Connell Center on Sunday, there’s a sense of urgency among the Gators.
The Seminoles have won seven consecutive games over Florida, and the Gators are going to need to play well for all 40 minutes to have a chance to end that streak.
“We just have a lot of things to work on,” Castleton said. “We’ve just got to get better because Sunday, if we play that way, we’re going to get blown out. We’ve got to just play better. We’ve got to pass the ball better, play harder.”
Jones is confident that they’ll do just that.
“We’re an older team, and the guys on this team should know better, that we’ve got to play two halves, and we can’t just play one,” he said. “Us being sloppy and just taking crazy shots, that’s not us. We haven’t shown that yet, and we’ve got to fix it. I have confidence in this team that we’ll fix it as a team and get better for the next game.”