Notable
* Florida mounted a second-half rally and had a possession with 2.5 seconds remaining, but Myreon Jones’ 3-pointer with a defender draped on him was off the mark.
* UF weathered a 1-for-21 start from the field (1/11 3FG) and a 2-for-26 first half, but used solid defense and the free throw line to stay within striking distance, 23-12, at the break. UF bounced back for a 40-31 second half.
* Colin Castleton notched his fourth double-double of the season and 17th of his career with 14 points and 13 rebounds to go along with six blocked shots.
* Castleton is the first SEC player to reach 14 points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots in a league game since Anthony Davis (1/17/12).
* Castleton has blocked 4+ shots in five of Florida’s six SEC games and is averaging 4.7 blocked shots in SEC play.
* Myreon Jones’ deep 3-pointer and a turnover forced on the ensuing inbounds play gave Florida a chance to steal the game in the final seconds. Jones finished with 10 points and matched a season high with three 3-pointers in his first start of the season. Jones is averaging 9.8 points over the last four games.
* Jones made his first start of the season, 22nd as a Gator and 70th of his career. Florida has now used six different starting lineup combinations this season.
Head Coach Todd Golden
On playing another tight game against Texas A&M…
“I think you’ve got two good teams that compete really hard, have an identity of defending and being physical. There weren’t a lot of easy baskets out there tonight on either side. Obviously, we did a really poor job in the first half making some shots. For the way we guarded them to hold them to 36 percent for the game, only 18 percent from three, we obviously did our job on that side of the ball, as well. Both teams have that identity [where] it’s really hard to score out there. Buckets are hard to come by. That leads to these low-scoring, grind-it-out kind of games where you can make two field goals in the first half and still be in the ball game like we were tonight.”
On what got the offense going in the second half…
“I thought we did a poor job in the first half attacking their pressure, and it didn’t give us enough time to operate in our half-court sets and we were just tentative in the first half. We were very concerned about taking care of the ball because turnovers were an issue for us the first time we played, and we did a decent enough job that way. But we weren’t aggressive enough, and we played a little tentative. In the second half, the message to the guys was, ‘Hey, let’s just go out and be aggressive. Let’s not be afraid to fail. Let’s push. If we make some mistakes, that’s all right.’ And I thought our attitude and our mentality was better that way in the second half. We still weren’t that efficient, but we scored 40 points in the second half so obviously we were a lot better.”
Grad G Myreon Jones
On playing from behind…
“We were getting the looks we wanted, just didn’t make shots. We still limited them to 23 at the half, so we were doing our part on defense. Missing shots killed us, so in the second half, we had to make a bigger run than we should have, and we just kept it close at halftime. It is kind of frustrating.”
On the second half success…
“I think we were more aggressive. We were more aggressive on the offensive end. In the first half, we would start running our offense at 17 seconds, and that’s how we made adjustments to be more aggressive on the offensive end. I think it got their defense a little weak and got us some open shots as well.”
Grad F Colin Castleton
On playing from behind…
“It’s encouraging that we were able to have enough grit like I talked about last time to put ourselves in a great position to win the game. We have to figure something out, come together like we did during our three game winning streak and figure out something to stop digging ourselves in a hole. There’s something that we’ll talk about in those regards, but it’s not a good identity to win basketball games down 9-0, 9-2, 11-3, and a lot of that was missing some shots.”
On Julius Marble…
“He’s good, got great touch. He’s a good big in this league. There’s a lot of guys in this league that have skill on the low block, and he’s one of them. He’s a good big, and we battled all night. I felt like I was able to get my buckets later on in the game because they were double-teaming and triple-teaming me and had to pass the ball and make the right plays. He’s a good big, it was a good battle.”
