#20/23 Auburn 61, Florida 58
Neville Arena | Auburn, Ala.
Box Score<https://floridagators.com/documents/2022/12/28/2022.12.28_UF_at_AU.pdf> | Season Stats<https://floridagators.com/documents/2022/11/7/2022-23_UFstats.pdf>
Records: Florida 7-6 (0-1 SEC) | Auburn 11-2 (1-0 SEC)
Next up: Texas A&M, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 7 p.m., ESPN2 or ESPNU
Downloadable Postgame Sound (not for publication)
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Credit: Florida Athletics
Notable
* The game featured 12 lead changes and 10 ties, and the Gators held a 27-12 bench scoring advantage, led by Kowacie Reeves with 15 points and Myreon Jones with 10.
* Reeves has scored 12+ points in four of the last six games, and it marked Jones’ second double-figure scoring game of the season, matching his season best of 10 (vs. FAMU, 11/30/22).
* Colin Castleton notched four blocked shots to reach 150 for his Florida career. He becomes the ninth player in program history to reach the milestone, and he now sits tied for eighth all-time with Eugene McDowell (1981-85).
* The game marked a return to Auburn for UF head coach Todd Golden, who spent 2014-16 at AU on Bruce Pearl’s staff.
Head Coach Todd Golden
On how he saw the game…
“As we’re getting through Year 1 here with my staff and this program, we’re always going to be more process-oriented than result-oriented. I thought for our group, first time playing in an atmosphere like this, on the road, top-20 team – obviously they’ve had a lot of success in this building over the last six years or so – just incredibly proud of our group. We’ve gotten a lot better. We’ve gotten a lot better. If this game was on our schedule a month ago, I don’t know if we could’ve stayed in this game the way we did tonight. We made plenty of mistakes and things we have to correct, but the overall competitiveness, trust, teamwork of our group has gotten really, really good, and I’m really optimistic as we get into this next stretch of our schedule.”
On the bench contributions of Kowacie Reeves and Myreon Jones…
“They played great. MJ [Jones], veteran, a guy that’s been in this game before did a really good job calming us on the offensive end. He was plus-8, didn’t turn it over one time and initiated our offense a lot. Made some shots tonight, which was great to see. Shot it well from the foul line. If he can give us this type of effort moving forward, it’s huge for us. It’s an addition of a really good player. And Wace [Reeves], I’m just really proud of him. This is a game, like I said, physical, tough, really raucous environment, and he had that confidence that he belonged out there tonight. He was just exceptional. I thought he had a really good game. Obviously, he scored it for us tonight, had some really good finishes, but he was tough, got us a couple offensive rebounds and was plus-4 himself. Again, they’re both really good players, too. They’re good players, and I’m just really proud of the lift they gave us and excited for what they can do moving forward.
Sophomore G Kowacie Reeves
On the defensive performance…
“We defended well. I think our half-court defense is really good and transition is getting better. It’s just getting better at rebounding, start making a couple shots, and we’re going to be trouble.”
On the final play of the game…
“Same scenario, same situation tomorrow, we’d run the same thing for Colin [Castleton]. He’s our best player. We’re down one, we trust him with the ball in his hands
