Gators advance to second round of NIT with comeback win over Iona

In their first game since Mike White’s departure, the Gators rallied from an eight-point second-half deficit Wednesday to defeat the Iona Gaels 79-74 in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. 

Florida notched its 20th win of the season and the first for interim coach Al Pinkins at the collegiate level.

“It was great. Best feeling I had in a long time. Thought the guys battled. I think we got down and they kept battling, kept defending,” Pinkins said. “Every timeout we talked about stops and eventually we kind of gathered ourselves and got a couple of stops and changed the game.”

The Gaels kept UF at a distance for a good portion of the contest. Florida was able to tie it multiple times, but couldn’t pull ahead as Iona consistently had an answer.

The Gators finally got over the hump and took their first lead of the game with 9:21 left to play. They didn’t trail in the final 8:44, staving off a late rally bid by the Gaels.

“The first half we were going zone to man, zone to man,” Pinkins said. “We stopped switching defenses and just went to man-to-man for a long period of time and we just started to get stops. We turned them over in the second half. That helped us a couple of times and gave us a little bit of momentum.”

How the Gators got the win

When the Gators have won throughout the season, they typically have a few players in double figures and that was the case Wednesday with four of their five starters — along with 15 points from the bench.

Florida improved to 11-4 this season when four or more players score in double figures.

Forward Colin Castleton led the team in scoring with 18 points and off the glass with 13 rebounds for his 10th double-double of the season.

Pinkins revealed after the game that Castleton has been playing through a torn labrum. 

UF guard Phlandrous Fleming Jr. tied Castleton for a team-high 18 points with five rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Guards Kowacie Reeves and Tyree Appleby added 14 points of their own.

“It was all for Coach Pink,” Appleby said. “He told us we weren’t going to do anything special. We’re just going to keep it simple and have the game plan ready for Iona because they’re a well-coached team. I think it was just for him, just wanting him to be a first-time head coach. Just winning felt good.”

Not a whole lot separated the two teams, but the Gators did win the turnover battle by forcing 16 with nine of those being steals.

UF hit 12-of-16 (75 percent) free throws as the Gaels committed 20 fouls throughout the game. Iona wasn’t as sharp from the charity stripe, hitting 10-of-18 (55.6 percent) attempts.

Florida also posted a 39-37 edge on the glass despite missing both power forwards on its roster, with Anthony Duruji (ankle) and CJ Felder (hip) both sidelined.

“We’ve been through a lot this year. This whole year has been about resiliency,” Fleming said. “We’ve just been doing that every day, every game. We go out there and we work. It felt really good to go out there and get a win. I’m not ready for it to be over with these guys.”

Florida, a three seed, will move on to play at two-seeded Xavier in the second round of the NIT on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN. The Musketeers beat Cleveland State in the first round.