Reeves comes to the rescue as Gators hold off Gamecocks

Sometimes, when a team is mired in a shooting slump and has lost a few games in a row, it just takes one player to ignite the spark that gets everyone going again.

Freshman guard Kowacie Reeves played such a role for the Gators on Saturday at South Carolina. Making just his second start, he scored a career-high 14 points and made a career-high-tying two steals in a career-high-tying 23 minutes. He went 4-for-6 from the field, including 2-for-3 from deep.

Reeves belied his youth by making some clutch, poised plays down the stretch in a tight game.

First, after the Gamecocks went on an 8-2 run to cut Florida’s lead down to 67-60 with 2:10 to go, they decided to foul Reeves intentionally and put him on the free throw line.

He only shot five free throws in the team’s first 15 games of the season, and an 11-for-22 effort at the line cost the Gators against LSU just three days prior. If ever there was a time for a freshman to get crushed by the pressure of the moment, this was it.

Instead, he made both shots to put the Gators up by nine.

Later, with UF clinging to a 69-63 advantage with less than 45 seconds to go, Phlandrous Fleming missed a jump shot, and the ball looked like it was going to bounce out of bounds. Instead, Reeves sprinted after it, secured possession of the ball and then fired it to Tyree Appleby out near midcourt while in midair to avoid stepping out of bounds.

“The ball just came off long, and my teammates did a good job of just crashing the glass to make the bigs have to hit, and my guy just so happened to leak out and not box me out, and then the ball just landed,” Reeves said. “It was about to go out of bounds, but I just went and pursued the ball just to try to help my team win.”

South Carolina then fouled Appleby, who made both of his free throws to put the game away. Florida defeated South Carolina 71-63 to pick up their first conference win of the season.

“I think every freshman in the country has got to go through a learning curve [with] defensive schemes, intensity, rebounding prowess, physicality and then, offensively, understanding what we’re trying to run, what’s a great shot and how to execute,” UF coach Mike White said. “[Reeves has] become a better ball handler and passer. He’s learned how to play within himself. This is a guy, like most high school kids, that a year ago today [was] probably in a high school game, was getting 25 shots up, and, at that level, it was really hard to guard him.

“I’m really proud of him. He’s had an unbelievable attitude, and nothing has been handed to him. He’s just earned it. He was really good today. He’s got a way to go; he’d be the first one to tell you. Again, he’s gotten better staying in front of the ball, loading to the ball, scouting report stuff. He’s going to be a very good player.”

Reeves was known more for his scoring ability as a highly ranked recruit out of Macon, Georgia, but he said that it was his development in other areas of his game that allowed him to have a breakout moment.

“I put more pressure on myself defensively and rebounding because, if you engage rebounding and defensively, it’s just inevitable that you’re going to make shots because that’s just how the game works,” he said. “It’s just how the game’s played; it rewards doing the right thing and making the right plays. So, all of us together, we played defense, and shots went in.

“I’m lost for words, honestly, because a lot of the guys on the team told me something similar to this was going to happen. Like, [Anthony] Duruji and Colin [Castleton], they were comparing their freshmen years and telling me how things were just up and down and bumpy for them at first, but they just encouraged me to just keep pushing on, keep working, paying attention to every little detail and just being engaged on defense. That was going to keep me on floor. So, once I did get those things, it started to come together.”

The same could be said for the Gators (10-6, 1-3 SEC) as a whole.

Three days after their worst shooting game of the season, they shot a season-high 55.1 percent against the Gamecocks (10-6, 1-3).

They did it with a balanced stat sheet. Fleming tied Reeves for the team lead with 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting (2-for-5 from three).

Castleton only scored 10 points, his second-fewest in a game this season, as South Carolina’s deep frontcourt made limiting his production a priority. However, he still found a way to impact the game by grabbing seven rebounds and tying his career high with eight blocked shots.

Guard Myreon Jones scored eight points (seven in the first half), and backup center Jason Jitoboh went 3-for-3 to score six points. He also secured four rebounds in a highly productive 12 minutes.

Appleby only scored four points but had a terrific floor game, with six assists and just two turnovers.

White emphasized shooting with confidence and having enough mental toughness to shake off a couple of missed shots in practice over the last two days. His message seems to have been received well.

“Overall, especially in the first 20 to 30 [minutes], I thought we played with a lot of confidence offensively,” he said. “We moved pretty well, we shot it with more confidence, we thought about the result a little bit less. That’s how you’ve got to play. You’ve got to believe in yourself. Step up, jump up and knock a shot in. Kowacie did a good job of that, of course, as well as a couple of other guys.

“We just seemed to shoot it with a little more confidence, a little more pop. We’ve talked a lot about mental toughness all season, even in the preseason. But the last two days, we just beat it up. It was less physical. It’s more about ‘I can’t worry about the result. Whether or not it’s going to go in, what my teammates are going to think, ‘Is coach going to yank me out,’ ‘Man, I can’t make a shot.’

“We’ve got to stop with all the whining and the pouting and the bad body language. Control what we can control, step up with confidence, make a shot. Period. Let’s just make a shot. And if you miss it, know you’re going to make the next one.”

The other end of the floor was a mixed bag for the Gators. They limited South Carolina to just 34.7 percent shooting, their fourth-best performance of the season. However, they did give up eight made threes on 22 attempts (36.4 percent).

They also gave up a season-high 21 offensive rebounds. Thanks to a strong defensive performance by the Gators and some offensive ineptitude on South Carolina’s part, the Gamecocks only converted those extra possessions into 13 points. Florida scored 16 second-chance points on just eight offensive rebounds.

Devin Carter led South Carolina with a dozen points, while Erik Stevenson chipped in 10 points. Keyshawn Bryant went just 2-for-11 from the field but pulled down a team-high eight boards in 19 minutes.

The Gators had several chances to turn this game into a blowout, but South Carolina went on just enough runs to keep things interesting until the very end.

Leading 12-10, Florida used a couple of turnovers to go on a 9-0 run in a little more than a minute. Appleby started things by burying a jumper. He then stole the ball away from Carter in the backcourt and passed the ball to freshman guard Elijah Kennedy, who found Duruji for a layup.

The Gamecocks gathered two offensive rebounds on their next possession before Duruji came down with the ball after the third missed shot. Appleby found a cutting Kennedy for a layup on the next possession.

Finally, Jones stole the inbounds pass and dished the ball to Kennedy in the corner. Kennedy swished a three to put the Gators up by 11 and prompt a South Carolina timeout.

The teams pretty much played even for the rest of the half, and the Gators went into their locker room leading 36-28.

The same back-and-forth play continued for about the first 10 minutes of the second half. Then, when Stevenson made a jump shot with 9:26 to go, Florida’s lead was down to 52-48.

At that point, there was likely one thought running through the minds of every Gators fan: “Here we go again.” It looked like the Gators were about to find another way to lose a game that was within their grasp.

This time, though, the Gators fought back with a 10-1 run of their own. Fleming collected a rebound off of a missed three by Reeves and laid it in. After a made free throw by South Carolina, Castleton connected with forward CJ Felder for an alley-oop dunk.

Moments later, Castleton sank a mid-range jump shot. Felder did the same on their next possession. With 5:20 to go, Reeves made a pair of free throws to stretch the lead back out to 62-49.

The Gamecocks once again battled back and got the lead down to seven before Reeves delivered his clutch plays late.

White is proud of the resolve that his team showed. They didn’t flinch when their lead dwindled to almost nothing, and they didn’t let negative thoughts fill their heads. They just kept playing and found a way to win.

“That group there, that’s the identity we’d like to get back to, of course,” White said. “They were in the moment. They were just ‘Let’s get a great shot but stay connected. I know we can get some stops,’ not ‘Man, I hope I make my next shot’ or ‘I can’t believe I missed my last shot.’ Let’s stop talking about that. It’s not getting us anywhere.”

On this day, Reeves helped the Gators get somewhere that they hadn’t been in 24 days – the win column.

Ethan Hughes
Ethan was born in Gainesville and has lived in the Starke, Florida, area his entire life. He played basketball for five years and knew he wanted to be a sportswriter when he was in middle school. He’s attended countless Gators athletic events since his early childhood, with baseball being his favorite sport to attend. He’s a proud 2019 graduate of the University of Florida and a 2017 graduate of Santa Fe College. He interned with the University Athletic Association’s communications department for 1 ½ years as a student and also wrote for InsideTheGators.com for two years before joining Gator Country in 2021. He is a long-suffering fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars. You can follow him on Twitter @ethanhughes97.

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