Florida Gators Blowout FAMU, 102-62
Kowacie Reeves Jr. reasserted himself into the starting lineup in a big way on Wednesday night with 17 points to aid Florida to a bounce-back win over the Florida A&M Rattlers, 102-62.
The 40-point win is the largest margin of victory by the Gators this season.
After his shocking exclusion from the lineup for much of the Phil Knight Legacy tournament, Reeves returned as a starter, alongside freshman Riley Kugel, against FAMU due to the absence of wing Will Richard and point guard Kyle Lofton. He not only got off to a hot start by producing the first bucket of the night after Florida won the tip but rattled off 11 points in the first 9:30 of action to kickstart the Gators to a 19-point halftime lead.
He finished the first half with 15 on 66.7% from the field as Florida posted a 69% on field goals in the period.
However, despite his inspired outing in the early going, he wasn't the hottest Gators scorer on the evening.
Trey Bonham, who has blossomed in the past few contests as an offensive x-factor, produced at a supremely high rate as he connected on all five of his shot attempts from beyond the arc to go 100% from the field and knocked down two free throws to post 17 first-half points.
He added three assists as he maximized his offensive play during his 17 minutes on the court, leading the team with a 15.5 game score, a measure of productivity on a scale of 0-40, at that point. The plus-20 plus/minus rating he boasted heading into the halftime break played a significant role in creating the 50-31 lead the team carried into the break.
While Florida failed to find their groove on the opposite basket to start the second half, shooting just 30% from the field on their first ten shot attempts of the period, the 19-point margin grew as a Kugel layup kickstarted Florida back into gear.
It was followed by a Reeves dunk, assisted by center Colin Castleton for his team-leading fifth of the night before Bonham retook control of the contest as a scorer.
The Mobile (Ala.) native in Bonham posted a career-high seven made three-pointers en route to 23 total points on the night, matching his season-high. He shot 87.5% from the floor while posting four assists, two steals and a 23.2 total game score.
His 7-for-7 clip behind the three-point line tied the most three-pointers made by a Florida player without a miss in program history. Matt Walsh did so against Bethune Cookman on Dec. 28, 2002.
Other Florida players took advantage of the opportunity they were provided to crack the rotation at a higher rate to produce on both ends. All but one of the Gators to see the floor outside of garbage time scored at least once as the Gators cracked the 100-point mark for the first time this season. Five players (Bonham, Reeves, Castleton, Alex Fudge and Myreon Jones) eclipsed the double-digit mark.
Niels Lane (8), Jason Jitoboh (7), Denzel Aberdeen (2) and Aleks Szymczyk (2) got on the board as well.
Florida finished 62.1% from the field as a unit on the night, compared to FAMU's 34.5%, a drastic uptick in efficiency on both ends of the court from UF's last outing on Sunday.
The Gators will look to build on the performance as they face off against Stetson on Sunday afternoon. That will be their last live action to prepare to host No. 8 UConn inside Exactech Arena on Dec. 7.
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