Wednesday afternoon’s game between Florida and Stony Brook had all of the makings of a pre-Christmas break letdown for the Gators.
They had lost three of their last five games and had struggled to shoot the ball. The Seawolves had won four games in a row.
With most of the students not on campus during the semester break, the crowd was sparser and less enthusiastic than what they’re accustomed to.
After the game, the Gators received the weekend off to celebrate Christmas before beginning SEC play next week. It’ll be the first time since August that they’ll be able to just relax and not worry about school or basketball for a few days. The anticipation of that break can often cause even the best of teams to lose focus and play sloppy in their final game before Christmas.
But the Gators didn’t allow that to happen. They took care of business in a mature fashion by whipping Stony Brook, 87-62, inside the O’Connell Center. With the win, the Gators are off to their best 12-game start to a season since the 2016-17 team also started the year 9-3.
“Our focus was really good here the last three days,” UF coach Mike White said. “I would’ve been surprised if we didn’t play pretty well, at least in the first half. Sharp in shootaround, and then the last couple days of practice, our guys really embraced maintaining the level of focus necessary for the break. These games can be tricky, so the maturity level was pretty good.”
Florida finally found its offensive groove and scored their most points in a game this season. The ball movement was excellent, which allowed them to rack up 20 assists, their second-most in a game this season.
They shot 53.3 percent overall and 34.8 percent (8-for-23) from beyond the arc. Of the 12 Gators who played, 10 of them scored. They used their enormous size advantage in the frontcourt to score 44 points in the paint and score 19 second-chance points off of 15 offensive rebounds.
Guard Phlandrous Fleming took full advantage of the extra minutes he received with Myreon Jones unavailable to play due to health and safety protocols. He scored a game-high 20 points on 6-for-8 shooting (4-for-5 from deep), grabbed four rebounds, dished two assists and registered a couple of steals in 25 minutes. It was his first 20-point game as a Gator.
“I thought he was probably the best player on the floor today,” White said. “Just took advantage. He’s so mature that whether he’s starting or he goes in – you can put him third guy off the bench. You could call the first five plays of the game for him, and he’s going to be the same guy.”
Center Colin Castleton scored 15 points and secured seven rebounds before sitting out the majority of the second half with the game well in hand.
Reserve forward CJ Felder knocked down a couple of threes en route to posting a 10-point, 5-rebound game.
Backup center Jason Jitoboh was spectacular in a season-high 14 minutes. He scored a career-high 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting and hauled down a career-high seven rebounds, all on the offensive end. He even made two of three free throws after Tyree Appleby was unable to shoot his free throws due to an injury.
“It started in practice,” White said. “It’s conditioning, and it’s rededication to ‘I’m going to make Coach play me. I’m going to help these guys that I care about.’ He’s had a really good three weeks, and it’s carried over. He’s got a ways to go, but he’s got a chance to be a good player. He did some good things tonight. It’s got to be his best game as a Gator. So, hopefully, he can build on this.”
Perhaps most significantly for Jitoboh, he didn’t commit a foul. He averaged one foul for every 2 ½ minutes in the first eight games that he appeared in, but he’s now played 24 consecutive foul-less minutes dating back to the South Florida game.
“I feel like that’s just me being in better shape, just being able to be in the right place at the right time,” Jitoboh said.
“Coach and the staff have been preaching inner confidence in me, telling me that I’m way better than I think. So, I’ve just been trying to play my role and get into the best condition that I can get to.”
Appleby was credited for seven assists, which tied his most in a Florida uniform. He also scored four points, grabbed three rebounds and made three steals.
UF’s defensive statistics were a little bit deceiving. Stony Brook shot 51.9 percent, which would normally be indicative of a poor showing on that end of the floor.
However, limiting the Seawolves’ production from three-point land was priority No. 1 for the Gators, as they entered the day shooting better than 35 percent from out there. The Gators were willing to give up a few layups on drives to the basket if it meant running them off of the line. They didn’t believe that Stony Brook could beat them without getting hot from three, and they were correct.
“They’ve got a number of guys that can really stretch you off the catch, off the bounce, out of their actions in transition and press attack, and, when guys are rhythm dribbling at 28 feet, it’s a lot different than guys rhythm dribbling at 19 feet,” White said. “I thought we did a pretty good job at just extending and pushing them out a little bit.
“Our attention to detail in defending the three was elite. I think they had two threes at the half, if I’m not mistaken, two of 17, and we turned them over a bunch. So, overall, we were pretty pleased with the defensive focus level because the whole deal was ‘These guys can hit 12 or 15 threes, and we’ll be in trouble. We’ve got to make them drivers.’”
UF limited them to 5-for-19 (26.3 percent) from deep, including just 2-for-7 in the first half when the game was decided.
While the Seawolves (7-5) made a high percentage of their shots, the Gators also turned them over 17 times, which they converted into 27 points at the other end.
“That’s our identity for everyone – speed them up,” Fleming said. “I think we trust ourselves on defense, and we’ve got a lot of individual defenders that make up a great team defense. We can pressure, pressure, pressure and allow them to make tough twos because they’re a really, really good three-point shooting team, and that’s what we tried to do – not give them any threes. I think we did pretty good.”
Jaden Sayles led Stony Brook with 16 points and five rebounds, while Jahlil Jenkins and Juan Felix Rodriguez each scored 14 points.
Yes, Stony Brook is a low-major opponent, but this was probably one of the Gators’ best all-around performances of the season. They passed the ball well, made shots, got to the free throw line, forced a ton of turnovers, shut down the Seawolves’ potent three-point attack, won the rebounding battle by 19 and got everybody into the game that was available.
That’ll definitely make the eggnog and cookies taste better over the next few days.