Florida made it about as difficult as they could in the late stages allowing Vanderbilt back into the game but ultimately they held on, winning by a score of 78-71. The Gators stretched out an 8 point halftime lead all the way to 20 in the second half and it looked like garbage time was coming early, but repeated sloppy execution on both sides of the floor allowed Vanderbilt to claw back into the game, all the way to the point where it was 73-69. Despite squandering the lead and nearly allowing a miraculous comeback the Gators were mercifully saved by the game clock winding down and clutch free throw shooting from Colin Castleton and Tre Mann helped ice the game. This certainly isn’t a victory the Gators are going to feel great about, and they won’t carry much momentum into a tall test Saturday against West Virginia.
Star Struck
Entering the game Florida’s number one goal was to take away guard Scotty Pippen Jr., unquestionably Vanderbilt’s most talented scorer and distributor. Unfortunately, that didn’t go so well as he finished with a career high 32 points and 6 assists. Some of this was purely spectacular individual play, but some of it was Florida’s defense showing warts. Pippen picked apart their pick and roll defense with regularity and if he felt like it, he’d simply go one and one and point out that the Gators didn’t have a defender capable of handling him one on one. Pippen is as good of a scorer the Gators will see this season and he showed where the Gators have defensive deficiencies.
Welcome Back
Wednesday’s game saw the return of Scottie Lewis to the lineup after missing a couple of weeks due to health and safety protocol. As soon as he entered the game he made his presence felt with a number of buckets, ultimately finishing with 10 points, 4 assists, and 4 steals off of the bench. With the Gators putting together some wins with him away from the team there were definitely some questions out there regarding how much Lewis should play when he returned and he showed that he is still an extremely valuable player.
Staying Hot
Tre Mann was saddled to the bench for much of the first half due to picking up two early fouls and while it was a blow to his rhythm he didn’t allow it to affect him much as he finished with 15 easy points. Generally he was quiet and didn’t stand out, and the fact he was able to put up 15 points on a “quiet” night speaks to how talented he is of a scorer. His first bucket was a beautiful stepback jumper, his now patented scoring move, and he also got a few buckets gliding to the rim past ill-equipped Vanderbilt defenders. Mann is as talented a scorer as the Gators have had the last couple of seasons and continues to show his skill set.
Final Thoughts
This was not an encouraging win for Florida as they faded down the stretch against a bad basketball team. What makes it even worse is the fact that they also seemed to not play well in the previous game against Georgia despite the fact they came away with a win. Florida has won the last two games but it has largely been due to their talent, not their level of execution on either side of the floor. On Saturday they play a tremendous West Virginia team and could be in serious trouble if they don’t play a lot better.