Gators Fail to Overcome Historically Poor First Half, Fall 54-52 to Aggies
Another hard-fought, defensive affair in a conference series crossing over into rivalry territory.
For the second time this season, the Florida Gators (10-8, 3-3 SEC) faced off against the Texas A&M Aggies (13-5, 5-0 SEC) in a hard-nosed matchup of teams currently viewed as bubble candidates for March Madness.
In the first matchup, the Aggies built an early lead heading into halftime, Florida closed the margin in the second half and then TAMU closed out the contest late. A lackluster offensive outing by Florida was the eventual difference.
The same storyline played out in College Station in round two as the Aggies walked out alive, 54-52, to snap Florida's three-game win streak.
In an effort to combat the offensive struggles they faced when the two met in Gainesville 14 days ago, Todd Golden elected to shake up the starting lineup with hopes of providing a spark, as he's shown the propensity to during his short stint as head coach for Florida thus far.
He replaced usual starter Trey Bonham with fifth-year senior Myreon Jones, who's shined during the three-game win streak with 9.7 points and a 5.0 assist-to-turnover.
Jones opened the Gators scoring at 16:27 with a triple to make it a one-point deficit to the Aggies, 4-3.
The Gators would then go nearly 12 and a half minutes before Kyle Lofton grabbed an offensive rebound and connected on a put-back layup to give the Gators the second field goal of the half.
Florida produced just 12 points heading into the halftime break, their lowest mark since 1966, and failed to connect on 24 of their 26 shot attempts in the first 20 minutes due to the expected pressure applied by Texas A&M.
Florida's trips to the charity stripe, connecting on 7-for-10 attempts, and patent strong defensive stands allowed the unit to remain within striking distance in the first half. However, Julius Marble's 12 points and one rebound willed the Aggies to an 11-point lead when the teams went to their locker rooms.
When the second half tipped, the lid was taken off the basket for Florida.
The struggle scoring the basketball slowed when Alex Fudge knocked down a long two from the top of the key to ignite the Gators forward to make a 10-2 run in 2:46. Jones and Will Richard knocked down crucial threes during that stretch to cut the one-time 12-point lead to five.
Texas A&M attempted to answer with an uptick of scoring of their own — at least in terms of volume, despite boasting a worse shooting percentage in the second half — but the Gators hung around long enough to close the gap via an all-around two-way effort.
After just one point in the first half, Colin Castleton came to life in the second half to post 14 second-half points, including a crucial alley-oop dunk on a lob from Lofton. The sequence, which included Castleton spinning to the basket off a potential pick-and-roll look, brought the Gators within two of Texas A&M.
The Aggies made two free throws on the other end to extend the lead back to four, but a Riley Kugel three-pointer from the left wing in possession with two offensive rebounds pulled UF within one.
Down the stretch, execution from the free throw line paid dividends. The Gators connected on 14-for-19 foul shots on the night, giving Florida the supplement it needed to overcome an abysmal first-half outing.
However, four late-game free throws by Texas A&M's Wade Taylor IV proved to be the difference in the two-point Aggies win.
A deep three by Jones with six seconds remaining brought Florida within two, followed by a turnover on the inbound pass, giving the Gators one last chance to win or send the contest to overtime. However, UF was unable to execute with the 2.5 seconds remaining. As a result, the three-game win streak is now over for Golden's squad.
The Gators will look to rebound as they remain on the road for their next contest as they travel to Starkville, Miss., for a Saturday night bout with Mississippi State.
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