Florida 81, South Carolina 60
Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center | Gainesville, Fla.
Box Score<https://floridagators.com/documents/2023/1/25/2192279__1_.PDF> | Season Stats<https://floridagators.com/documents/2022/11/7/2022-23_UFstats.pdf>
Records: Florida 12-8 (5-3 SEC) | South Carolina 8-12 (1-6 SEC)
Next up: at #5 Kansas State, Saturday, Jan. 28, 6 p.m. EST, ESPN2
Downloadable Postgame Sound via Dropbox<https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nvyq83lsj9eq1bi/AABfIip-ri8osd5O7Epl1oPWa?dl=0>
Credit: Florida Athletics
Notable
* Five Gators scored double figures, led by Colin Castleton’s 18, while Myreon Jones had an all-around game with 10 rebounds and eight assists, both career highs, to go along with nine points and no turnovers. Over the past two games, Jones and Kyle Lofton have combined for 22 assists and no turnovers (Jones 13, Lofton 9).
* The Gators used a 12-2 run early in the second half to open up a 16-point lead, sparked by a Riley Kugel 3-pointer and alley-oop dunk. Florida kept the margin at double digits for the final 17:47, with the lead ballooning as large as 30.
* The Gators earned their first home win vs. South Carolina since 2017, snapping three straight losses vs. SC in Gainesville. Prior to Wednesday’s game, the road team had won six straight in the series.
* The Gators and Todd Golden have posted a 5-0 mark against fellow SEC first-year coaches, sweeping Golden’s first run through the league’s 2022 class of hires.
* Florida has won five of its last six games and now enters a four-game stretch that includes three games vs. AP top-five opponents, a run of highly-ranked opponents unprecedented in program history.
* Florida’s defense continues to play at a high level, holding South Carolina to 22-for-60 from the field (.367) and 60 points. UF has held 11 of its last 13 opponents below 40% from the field and nine of its last 10 foes to 66 points or fewer.
* The Gators dished a season-high 21 assists and have notched 15+ assists in four of the last six games.
* UF owned the transition game with a 21-3 scoring edge in fastbreak points.
* Colin Castleton passed Andrew DeClercq for fifth all-time in blocked shots in Gator history (179). His 63 blocks this season also rate as the #9 single-season total at UF and surpass Castleton’s 2021-22 total of 62.
* Kyle Lofton moved into the top-10 career minutes played (all schools) over the past 25 years, with 4,976. He is poised to become the eighth player over the last quarter century to surpass the 5,000-minute milestone.
* Freshman Riley Kugel made his fourth start of the season, filling in for the injured Alex Fudge, and scored all of his career-high 14 points in the second half.
Head Coach Todd Golden
On the win…
“I thought we did a nice job. If we can look at one thing to improve upon, getting on the glass, we didn’t do a good enough job defensively on the glass. But a lot of great things and what I’m most proud about is just the way we continue to be unselfish and share the ball. We have 21 assists, six turnovers tonight. It’s really hard to do at this level, especially when you only make seven threes. Usually threes are assisted, but sometimes two point baskets aren’t. It’s a great feeling for our guys to have gone through some tough times early and now see winning five out of six and seeing multiple guys, nearly almost having six guys in double figures tonight. Just a really complete effort from the team and I thought our guys on the bench did a good job picking up.”
On the Gators’ new roster…
“We had 13 freshmen in terms of to the program, 13 new guys. It was definitely going to take some time. Obviously a really challenging schedule early on. It’s tough to kind of play through those moments and build confidence because you are not winning those games. But we have start winning those games in league and being up by as many as 30 tonight was huge. I was proud of the way our guys played.”
On Myreon Jones…
“Him and Kyle [Lofton] have just played really well off of each other, complimenting each other really well. I think over the past two games they’re 22 assists, zero turnovers or something like that. It’s insane. When you have senior leadership out there, guys who have been through it a little bit, they’re Batman and Robin in the backcourt a little bit, running our team. They can both run ball screens, both shoot the ball, they’re heavy IQ players and they’ve made us really, really good over the past couple of weeks. Really happy for Myreon because, obviously, he struggled in the beginning of the year, couldn’t really get comfortable. I felt like in that Auburn game, even though we lost, he kind of broke out and felt like he got back to himself and has played really, really well all through league play.”
Sophomore G Kowacie Reeves
On finding his footing through a shooting slump…
“Consistent preparation, also having guys around me like these guys, continue to let me have the confidence. If I’m wide open shoot the ball. Don’t pass up a shot, and also it just came to me with me doing like defensive stuff like rebounding, stuff like that, running out getting assists, those type of things get you going in a game.”
On contributing in other ways through his shooting struggles..
“It helps me a lot. I struggle with that at times. You miss two, it feels like you missed five. I struggle with that sometimes, it helps me a lot knowing I can make it back on defense.”
Grad F Colin Castleton
On this win and going forward…
“We knew we had to take care of business, come out and just have a good effort. We know we have a good stretch coming up here with a lot of good teams, so we just gotta stay connected as ever. We got a big one on the road versus Kansas State this weekend, so we just got to have a good practice, watch film and get ready for them because they’re a great team. We just gotta be ready for that challenge.”
On small ball….
“I think just we’re more switchable. Obviously not as much length, but the guards get in a lot of passing lanes, they’re very active, and I’m at the rim being ready to help them, so were able to communicate well throughout ball screens and it’s hurt us on the glass a little bit here and there. I got to do better job rebounding, but as a team that’s one thing Coach Golden emphasized even after the game. He was saying we got to do a better job because we’re giving up too many offensive rebounds, so I gotta take pride in that but, it helps us a lot on defense too.”
Grad G Myreon Jones
On playing well with Kyle Lofton…
“I think it just keeps everybody calm. Having everybody in their right places, where we know they’re comfortable at. Don’t get too much in a rush, and I feel like with us two out there, one of us can play on the ball, and we can play off the ball, it really doesn’t matter. Really just keeping everybody together, calm, and collected for real.”
On roster turnover and getting to know each other impacting assists…
“I think it’s a lot of that, we’re hitting that stride where we’re really just playing together, playing for each other, and also just making shots too at the same time. A lot of assists come from just getting stops on defense and then hitting the open shooters. A lot of it just comes from playing with each other long enough, and now we’re getting comfortable.”
