The Gators were in a decent position to pull off an upset win at halftime at Rupp Arena on Saturday. They only trailed No. 5 Kentucky 33-28, and they played much of the half without point guard Tyree Appleby, who went down early with an apparent left thigh injury after colliding with a Kentucky player near midcourt while battling for a loose ball.
They had done a pretty good job against potential National Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe. He scored 17 points and secured nine rebounds in the opening 20 minutes but didn’t seem to make a ton of game-changing plays.
The Gators also shot only 27 percent from long range in the first half, and the red-hot Myreon Jones didn’t even attempt a shot.
So, if they could get Appleby back on the floor and shoot just a little bit better from three in the second half, it felt like they might be able to pull out the win.
Unfortunately for them, things didn’t get better. They got worse. Much, much worse. The Wildcats charged out of the locker room with a 15-4 run to take a commanding 48-32 lead not even four minutes into the half. Appleby tried to tough it out for a few minutes before leaving the game for good after just seven total minutes.
Tshiebwe eventually wore down the Gators and finished with 27 points and 19 rebounds. He collected 10 offensive rebounds, which was five more than the entire UF team.
This game got away from the Gators quickly, and they fell to the Wildcats by a final score of 78-57.
“Transition defense wasn’t our best effort of the season,” UF coach Mike White said. “The biggest key to the game for us [was we] started the game with less urgency needed, less communication level needed, especially our frontcourt, behind the play, pointing at guys ahead, didn’t get to the level of the ball, didn’t cup the ball, which led to some open looks.
“We started the second half in the same way after watching it at halftime. Was disappointed in the start of the second half in terms of our energy level. [We] clawed our way back. I liked the position we were in mid-second half or at least early-to-mid second half, but then we had a couple of turnovers which led to easy ones for them, and it got out of hand. I thought for 30 minutes, we did some things that put us in position maybe to come in here and be competitive down the stretch, and it fell apart on us.”
White said that Appleby’s injury was a reaggravation of an injury that he suffered recently, and Appleby initially thought that he felt well enough to play in the second half. After a few minutes of watching him, they decided to shut him down. White didn’t provide an update on Appleby’s future availability after the game.
“It’s part of the game,” White said. “You hate it for Ty. He’s really played well as of late, especially down the stretch in some of these wins that we’ve had.
“He thought he could give it a go. Obviously, he wasn’t himself.”
Kentucky only outshot Florida 46 percent to 45 percent, but they used margins of 17-4 in points off of turnovers and 20-7 in second-chance points to turn this game into a laugher.
The Wildcats (21-4, 10-2 SEC) were simply the far more physical and active team on the defensive end, and that made all of the difference. The Gators didn’t fight hard enough, which was very disappointing for them.
“It was a bad loss,” center Colin Castleton said. “Really, like the coaches told us, it honestly just came down to them getting more rebounds, doing the little things better, hustling harder. Transition, they killed us, outran us rim to rim and got so many more second-chance points. Oscar got 10 [offensive] rebounds – they had 18, and he had 10 of them – and we only had five total. I’ve got to do a better job. That was basically the summary of the game.”
While Tshiebwe dominated yet another opponent, Kellan Grady hit a trio of threes in the first half that set the tone and allowed the Wildcats to take a lead into halftime. He finished with 15 points. Davion Mintz scored 11 points on 3-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc.
Point guard Sahvir Wheeler scored nine points and dished six assists, while freshman phenom TyTy Washington scored 10 points, carded six assists and pulled down five rebounds before leaving with an injury of his own.
Castleton led the Gators with 18 points and seven rebounds, but he also committed four of the team’s 10 turnovers and struggled against Tshiebwe in the low post.
Brandon McKissic scored nine points but turned it over three times. CJ Felder knocked down a pair of threes in the first half and secured three rebounds and a blocked shot.
Phlandrous Fleming had eight points, four rebounds and two assists, and Jones made two of his three shots from deep in the second half.
While the lack of physicality and defensive execution against Kentucky was highly disappointing, the Gators (16-9, 6-6) don’t have time to sulk. They’ve got a game at a decent Texas A&M team on Tuesday followed by a home game against No. 1 Auburn on Saturday.
For the Gators to make the NCAA Tournament, they’re going to have to start picking up some wins against quality opponents. They’re going to get plenty of more chances over the next few weeks.
“We have a quick turnaround, so we have to put this one behind us,” Castleton said. “Obviously, it sucks. We didn’t do what we were supposed to. We felt like we had a good opportunity if we had done all the things we were supposed to like Coach was telling us, but it’s basketball, so you’ve got to move on and get ready for the next game.
“We don’t have an off day; we don’t have any time to rest. We’ve got to just get back to it, practice, look at what we did wrong and then get a win the next game. We’ve got six games left in the year, so we’ve got to control what we can and try to win every game.”