Victorinox Tampa Tip-Off
Amalie Arena | Tampa, Fla.
Box Score<https://floridagators.com/documents/2022/12/14/2187131.PDF> | Season Stats<https://floridagators.com/documents/2022/11/7/2022-23_UFstats.pdf>
Records: Florida 7-4 | Ohio 5-5
Next up: vs. Oklahoma (at Charlotte; Jumpman Invitational), Tuesday, Dec. 20, 9:30 p.m., ESPN2
Downloadable Postgame Sound (not for publication)
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Notable
* Florida used a 17-0 run – its largest of the season – to take a commanding 33-10 lead in the late stages of the first half. The Gators held Ohio to a 4-for-25 start from the field (0-for-7 from 3), including 10 straight misses over an eight-minute span.
* Florida held an opponent under 50 points for the second time this season (45 vs. Stony Brook). The Gators took a 42-18 lead into halftime, marking the fewest points allowed in a half by UF since allowing 15 in the first half vs. Stetson on Dec. 6, 2020.
* Kowacie Reeves led the Gators with 20 points, his second career 20-point performance, both of which have come at Amalie Arena. He scored a career-high 21 vs. Texas A&M in the 2022 SEC Tournament.
* Alex Fudge posted his second career double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Over the last 4 games, Fudge has averaged 13.3 pts and 8.3 rebounds with four blocked shots while shooting .563 from the field (18-for-32), .500 from 3 (3-for-6) and .933 from the free throw line (14-for-15)
* Kyle Lofton added 15 points on 4-for-6 shooting with seven assists.
* Florida improves to 10-4 all-time at Amalie Arena, 6-1 in regular season action.
Head Coach Todd Golden
On where the real Florida is between the last two performances…
“Probably somewhere in between, you know. It’s been a little bit of what has made this preseason challenging for us as a staff to figure out who we are because we’ve played four really good teams – three of them in the top 11 in the NET, and Xavier’s 40th and they’re probably a little better than that – and then some teams that are probably mediocre. So we’ve done our jobs against those teams. We had one game against Florida State where we won by nine on the road. Everything else has been 10 or more. In terms of building our program and where we are, beating a team like this by 34 is not easy to do. … That means a lot. It’s really hard against a team like Ohio to do this. Our next step as a program, as a team, will be finishing the job against a Quad 1 opponent, and Oklahoma is an opportunity to do that next week.”
On the team today looking like what envisioned…
“Yeah, I thought we looked like an improved team tonight. Multiple guys played well, and I think schematically in terms of what we want to do, we defended very well. We guarded in the half-court really well. We limited their transition. For the most part – second half we got a little sloppy, but I thought we took care of the ball well and were more organized in this game than we’ve been in the past, and we cleaned up the defensive glass. All those things are what we’re preaching and talking about every day and a lot of guys did it tonight, the most we’ve had in a given game. It’s encouraging. Again, we’ve got to continue to do it over and over again, that consistency piece is going to be important as we move forward.”
Grad G Kyle Lofton
On feeling more like himself…
“Coming into the game, I knew I was going to get it going early because I felt good. Last game was iffy, but I wanted to go, wanted to be out there with the guys playing UConn, playing a top-five team. But today I definitely felt much better.”
On where this team is right now…
“I think today we took a huge jump because in practice we preach moving the ball, sharing the ball, playing late in the shot clock. Before, we had the ball sticky. It didn’t move or change sides of the floor. We were trying to shoot early on in possessions. We didn’t make teams guard us. So just doing the stuff we practice, it showed today.”
Sophomore G Kowacie Reeves
On where he started feeling it tonight…
“In the beginning without even shooting, like rebounding, playing hard, that gets you going – that gets me going, as a player. That gets me in my rhythm offensively. Shots just came by my teammates doing a good job finding guys when the defense collapsed.”
On bouncing back tonight after last week’s loss…
“Everybody really knew what we had to do. We knew what mistakes we made in the game. … It’s just coming out at practice and competing and making sure you get better at practice, and that translates to games.”
