Todd Golden happy with defensive effort from bench players

It has been an up-and-down start to the 2022-23 season for new head coach Todd Golden and Florida.

But the Gators secured its first conference win over the weekend in a rivalry matchup with Georgia in Gainesville, Fla. Behind 35 points off the bench, Florida won the game 82-75.

The bench unit — led by Myreon Jones, Riley Kugel and Kowacie Reeves — was praised by Golden in the post-game presser.

“I thought they did a really good job lifting our defensive intensity when they got in the game,” Golden said. “Riley did a really good job on the ball, which was an issue for us early on. What I was happy about was when we kind of went — like quote unquote — (to a) more of a smaller ball lineup…we were still able to fend relatively well.”

Jones finished with 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting while also adding three steals. Reeves added 12 points of his own to go along with five rebounds and three assists.

The Gators got off to a slow start and were down 23-10 with about 10 minutes to go in the first half. But Florida soon got on a roll thanks in part to those bench players.

“We’re over there searching, trying to find the right matchup, trying to find the right lineups to get us going a little bit,” Golden said. “Fortunately, we were able to get to what we call a kill — three stops in a row — led to a couple of easy transition layups and it felt like we opened up and loosened up a little. But overall, I’m just really proud of our guys.”

Todd Golden and his Gators will continue SEC play on Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. ET where they’ll face the previously surging LSU Tigers. LSU will be looking to rebound after dropping two-straight games in SEC play to Kentucky and Texas A&M.