Three Key Takeaways From Florida’s 72-63 Victory Over Ole Miss
Back in the win column, barely.
Following two straight losses to the likes of Alabama and Kentucky, who faced each other on Tuesday night for lone supremacy in the Southeastern Conference, the Florida Gators narrowly avoided their third-straight loss with a close victory over the Ole Miss Rebels in Gainesville.
Led by a trio of scorers in Colin Castleton (21), Tre Mann (17), and Noah Locke (15), Florida reigned victorious by way of late-game heroics. After being down 63-58 at one point, the Gators would begin to shut down the Ole Miss offensive attack and never look back.
Closing the game a 14-0 run, UF found their groove late after trailing for the second half's longevity, resulting in the 72-63 final score. Despite being an up and down game that consisted of its peaks and troughs, Florida found a way to pick it up when it mattered most, triumphing over their lulls to come out on top in the end.
Here are three key components to Florida's victory over the Rebels.
Free throw shooting hoists the Gators
Struggling from the line in recent outings—a significant factor in their back-to-back losses—the Gators put together a fantastic performance from the line on Tuesday night against the Rebels.
As a result of the 20 foul calls against Ole Miss on the night, Florida was given the opportunity to avenge their foul shooting woes as of late and rekindle a fire that carried them to victories in the early portions of SEC play.
Despite only four players taking trips to the charity stripe on the evening, Florida combined to go 22-for-26, with Tre Mann and Noah Locke producing a perfect 12-for-12 between the two.
In the end, the Gators' consistency in the closing minutes of the contest in that department aided the Gators' comeback efforts, trailing by as many as nine. Soon following two missed free throws by Ole Miss’s Luis Rodriquez down one to Florida, the Gators were given multiple opportunities of their own to capitalize upon.
Specifically, when Romello White fouled out of the contest, Ole Miss was assessed a technical on head coach Kermit Davis that would add on two free throws to Mann’s one and one for the loose ball foul on White.
Knocking down all four attempts with under a minute, Mann would push the lead to seven.
From that point forward, the Gators would sit in firm control of the contest, needing to run out the clock as a simple formality. Adding two free throws by Locke to extend their run in the final stretch to 14-0, the duo that was perfect from the line and combined for 32 points on the night would give the Gators a final push towards a much-needed bounce-back victory.
Colin Castleton bounces back
Welcome back, Mr. Castleton!
After two disappointing showings in a row from the first-year transfer from Michigan, Colin Castleton, the Gators big man that lit up the competition in his first two tastes of league play, re-emerged against Ole Miss.
Scoring 21 points and having three assists—tying his season total—in 31 minutes of action in the Florida victory—Castleton brought life to a mundane Gators offense by muscling for two separate and-ones in the second half.
Coming out of the locker room with a fire that has been evident since he arrived in Gainesville, Castleton was a man on a mission in the second twenty minutes of play, scoring 14 of his 21 points.
Having an emphatic block on Devontae Shuler that resulted in a transition three from Locke to give Gators a one-point lead, the near 7-footer kickstarted what turned out to be the beginning of the end for the Rebels.
Setting personal records for himself in both rebounds and blocks, the Deland (Fla.) native accounted for a career-high in both rebounds (10) and blocks (7).
This season, Florida has been in dire need of a consistent piece like Castleton to carry the load in the absence of Keyontae Johnson. Performances like the one he had on Tuesday are exactly what’s needed for a usually middle of the pack Gators team to elevate its play to the next level.
No Scottie Lewis? No problem
As a pregame scratch for “health and safety reasons,” Florida lacked their best defender in Scottie Lewis against the Rebels.
With Lewis’s absence usually being a sign for disaster to come for the Gators defensively, Florida held their own against the rather lengthy Ole Miss attack, limiting them to just 63 points on the evening.
Shooting an abysmal 39% from the field, the Rebels struggled to get anything going offensively and failed to combat the Gators' late surge with any form of offensive production of their own.
Majorly spearheaded by Castleton in the shot-blocking department and a mixture of Mann and Appleby in the stealing department, Florida anchored down on the defensive end of the court.
Accounting for eight turnovers, six steals, and nine blocks combined, Florida was menacing on the defensive end all night long, a major reason for their ability to stick around in the contest until they finally took their chance to take over.
Supplying the energy and defensive prowess normally brought by Lewis on a nightly basis in different forms, Florida was able to overcome the inactivity of the 6-foot-5, 189-pound guard from New Jersey in a night they took a step towards getting back on track where the SEC is concerned.
