Xavier outlasts Gators in Phil Knight Invitational

The Gators suffered their second loss of the season Thursday, falling 90-83 to Xavier in the quarterfinals of the Phil Knight Invitational.

Trailing at the break, Florida regained the lead early in the second half but lost it at the 13:22 mark as the Musketeers went on an 8-0 run.

Xavier built a double-digit lead, but a pair of Colin Castleton layups cut the deficit to two points and then 82-79 with three minutes left.

The Musketeers then scored six straight to go up by nine points with 36 seconds remaining and held on for their second win over UF in eight months.

The Gators (3-2) struggled with shots at the rim, making just 20 of their 38 layups. Xavier made 17 of 23 layups and shot 56 percent overall for the game.

The Musketeers (4-1) also closed out the first half with an 8-0 run.

“We had a couple moments where we let them off the hook,” UF coach Todd Golden said. “We could’ve gone into halftime with the lead, and we went in down four, which was really disappointing. It kind of took some wind out of our sails. In the second half, we had a couple breakaway opportunities.

“A missed dunk that ended up being three at the other end, a missed transition layup that ended up being three at the other end. Against a really good team like Xavier, you can’t have those things happen, right? So, other than some interesting plays like that, I thought it was a pretty evenly played game. They had their moments, we had ours.”

All five Xavier starters finished in double figures, led by Colby Jones and Souley Boum with 22 points apiece. Zach Freemantle posted a double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds) along with Castleton (11 points, 10 boards), who also had four blocks.

It marks the 15th double-double for Castleton, tying him with Joakim Noah and Chandler Parsons for fifth-most by a Gator since the 1996-97 season.

Trey Bonham made his first start as a Gator and led the team with a season-high 23 points. He started in place of Kowacie Reeves, who was benched due to a “coach’s decision” by Golden. Reeves has not played since the first half of the Florida State game.

“From being at our game last Friday night, he provided a big spark in the second half, and I thought he was playing with confidence in the first half before that,” Golden said of Bonham, who scored 11 at FSU. “That was the guy that we were kind of expecting to get from VMI.

“We thought allowing him to build off that performance last Friday, put him in the starting lineup, it would take some pressure off Kyle [Lofton], allow us to put more pressure at the top of the defense. I’m not sure he was great defensively tonight — I’ll have to go back and watch — but he was obviously fantastic offensively and did a really good job scoring the basketball.”

So too did Will Richard, who scored 15 of his season-best 18 points in the second half and hit four total treys. But as a team, the Gators shot 33 percent from downtown while Xavier hit half of their 3-pointers (10 for 20). The Musketeers also had a 20-8 advantage in free throw attempts.

Florida will play Oregon State (3-2) at 6 p.m. Friday on ESPNU. The Beavers nearly upset No. 8 Duke on Thursday, but the Blue Devils survived 54-51.

“We feel like we could’ve and should’ve won that game,” Bonham said after the loss to Xavier. “We’ve got a lot of areas to improve, so once we hit our peak and get together as a team, we’re going to be great.”