Notables
* The Gators finished the game on a 20-2 run after falling behind 61-52 with 6:28 left in the game. That includes a 14-0 finish over the final four minutes.
* Colin Castleton posted his first career double-double and his third 20-point game in SEC play, finishing with 21 points and 10 rebounds to go along with eight blocked shots.
* His eight blocked shots were the second-most in a game in Florida history (Dwayne Davis, nine) and the most since Al Horford’s seven vs. Ole Miss in 2005.
* Castleton now has 110 points through nine games with the Gators, surpassing his total of 99 points in two seasons at Michigan.
* Tre Mann scored 17 points and seven rebounds, with a perfect 8-for-8 night from the free throw line.
* Among Noah Locke’s 15 points was the go-ahead 3-pointer on a fastbreak dish from Tyree Appleby with 2:37 to play.
Quotable
Tre Mann
On focus coming into this game…
“My main focus was coming in and getting a win. I feel like our response was good and we got a win, so I felt like it was good.”
On the last seven minutes…
“Me and my brothers wanted to win. It was a tough fight. Every timeout we were saying, ‘we need stops, we need stops.’ Coaches were trying to throw different defenses at us, but we told them we’re going to go lock them up and that’s what we did. I looked to my side and saw all my brothers in a defensive stance, talking. We did what we had to do to get the win.”
On Colin Castleton…
“He brings a lot of confidence. Colin has done this three or four games already where he just has a great second half and gives us that spark that we need… it’s great having him in here.”
Colin Castleton
On motivation to play tonight…
“Completely motivated. I feel like we had a [bad] performance versus Kentucky. We got back to work the next day, fixed the things we needed to fix and I feel like we played really hard tonight. Played unselfish and came out with a victory. We bounced back pretty well, but we have to move on again. We have one on Saturday, so we have to be ready for that as well.”
On the team wanting it more winning…
“100%. We were in a timeout and I think we were, I don’t want to say exactly, but we were down … and I kind of just stopped the guys and was like, ‘We gotta dig in. We have to figure out what we have to do to win this game, like we are not losing this game no matter what shape or form, we are not losing this game.’ We did what we needed to do, got the stops and hit some big shots.”
Mike White
On his team’s performance…
“(We) just played with a ton of resilience. Stops down the stretch, discipline without fouling. Got to the foul line, converted. Found a way, whether it was 1-3-1 or press or man-to-man. I thought we defended at a high level.”
On what he saw in his team down the stretch…
“A lot of physical and mental toughness. You know, it’s something that we talk about as much as anything. This team’s got development in those toughness categories, but took steps tonight. I thought our communication was pretty crisp. We were in stance, we were flying around. I thought Colin (Castleton) did a good job of altering some shots and I thought our guards took a step in the right direction in terms of helping our bigs swarm to the basketball.”
On Colin Castleton’s play…
“I thought he really got himself going on the offensive glass. I want to say there was a loose ball or two, I mean just the activity that he played with offensively and defensively was just high level-[eight] blocked shots, three assists, we played through him a lot.”
