Notable
* The Gators picked up their second road SEC win behind another strong defensive performance, led in scoring by Colin Castleton (13 points) and Will Richard (12).
* Tonight’s victory marked the 1,500th win in program history.
* Todd Golden improved to 4-0 against fellow first-year head coaches in the SEC. Of the six SEC teams with first-year head coaches, only Florida currently has a winning record in SEC play.
* It marked Florida’s first win in Starkville since 2017, having lost its previous two visits.
* Florida’s defense has held eight of its last nine opponents to 66 points or fewer and 10 of its last 12 foes have shot below .400 from the field.
* Kyle Lofton and Myreon Jones combined for 11 assists and no turnovers. Florida’s 16 assists were its most in SEC play this season.
* Lofton also grabbed a season-high and team-leading eight rebounds.
* The Gators reversed their recent trend of slow starts. After trailing 3-0, Florida reeled off a 11-0 run that included 3-pointers by Colin Castleton, Will Richard and Alex Fudge.
* The Gators jumped out to a 16-point lead, 33-17, but MSU came back and tied the game in the second half. With the game tied at 45 at the 9-minute mark, the Gators used a 7-0 spurt to regain control of the game.
* MSU once again closed the gap and had the ball at the end of the game down two, but the Florida defense came up with the stop to seal the victory.
* Kowacie Reeves hit a pair of second-half 3-pointers and scored all nine of his points in the second half.
* Jason Jitoboh earned the first drawn charge of his career while defending Tolu Smith in the post.
Head Coach Todd Golden
On finally starting well and responding to MSU’s second-half run…
“First of all, it’s been no secret, we’ve talked a lot about how we’re going to get off to a better start. Obviously, tonight we did that, and I was really proud of the way we jumped out on them. We had a 16-point lead at one point in the first half – hard to do. Obviously, it felt like they were going to come back on us a little bit. I didn’t expect to hold the lead like that all game, but just to give ourselves that head start was huge. We were probably a little too tentative in the second half, but a little bit of that is human nature trying to hold onto the lead as opposed to being really aggressive. Mississippi State playing like they’ve got nothing to lose in the second half, knocking down some shots, it ended up being a game that we expected – a blow-for-blow, team that gets the last couple stops is probably going to find a way to win. For us to do this on the road, I think speaks volumes to the growth of our guys and the progress we’ve made over the last month because this is a game that would’ve probably been really hard for us to win a month ago.”
On getting some mini-runs to retake control and whether the team relaxed then…
“No, not at all. I don’t think it was a relax issue. We got good shots. I loved Wacie’s [Kowacie Reeves] three from the corner that could’ve iced it for us with about a minute to go or whatever it was. I thought Colin [Castleton] had a great drive and missed one. Again, they were playing fearlessly. They were playing like they had nothing to lose, and that pressure that they were applying just caused us to be a little more tentative because we were trying not to turn it over. A little bit of it, tip your cap to what they did. But again, I think we got some huge stops down the stretch on the last two or three possessions that won us the game.”
Associate Head Coach Korey McCray
On returning to Mississippi State, where he coached for the previous seven years…
“Lot of great memories here. Everybody was asking me all day if it felt weird to be here, and it didn’t, until I sat on the opposing bench, and that’s when I was like, ‘Man, it feels weird to be sitting on this side.’ Guys played well, so I’m proud of our guys, and we have to build on this.”
Grad F Colin Castleton
On the win…
“We won, that’s all that matters. I was telling them on the radio, we didn’t have a great second half. They came out with a great run and they’re a good team, well coached with a lot of energy and fire and they care, but we hit timely shots and had good defensive possessions and came out with the last stop.”
On the last play of the game…
“Defensively, they were just pushing the ball and I was trying to get matched up as soon as possible. I knew they were going to try to drive and attack because that’s what most coaches teach is when you’re down two in a close game, you have to get to the rim and get fouled. I was trying to be a presence at the rim. I think I hit the ball four times, they go the offensive rebound and I just tried to hit it as hard as I could to get it away until the clock hit zero. We were all scrambling, and it was a dogfight. The whole game was.”
