Florida's second-half rally falls short at Texas A&M

The Gators’ three-game winning streak was snapped Wednesday in a 54-52 loss at Texas A&M, their first defeat since falling at home to the Aggies on Jan. 4.

Florida had an abysmal first period from the floor but mounted another rally, pulling within one possession multiple times throughout the second half.

UF trailed the entire game but hit two 3-pointers in the final minute, the latter by Myreon Jones with 4 seconds left to cut the deficit to two points. Jones then forced a turnover on the ensuing inbounds to give the Gators a chance at a game-tying or go-ahead shot, but his 3-pointer with a defender draped on him was off the mark.

“There weren’t a lot of easy baskets out there tonight on either side. Obviously, we did a really poor job in the first half making some shots,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “For the way we guarded them to hold them to 36 percent for the game, only 18 percent from three, we obviously did our job on that side of the ball.

“Both teams have that identity [where] it’s really hard to score out there. Buckets are hard to come by. That leads to these low-scoring, grind-it-out kind of games where you can make two field goals in the first half and still be in the ball game like we were tonight.”

UF weathered a 1-for-21 start from the field (1-for-11 from 3) and a 2-for-26 first half, but used solid defense and the free throw line to stay within striking distance, 23-12.

Florida was 7-for-10 from the charity stripe in the first half and 14-for-19 overall, while the Aggies had no free throw attempts through 20 minutes and seven for the game.

Following their lowest scoring half of the season, the Gators pulled with three points just five minutes after the break and outscored Alabama 40-31 in the second half.

“We were getting the looks we wanted, just didn’t make shots. We still limited them to 23 at the half, so we were doing our part on defense,” Jones said. “Missing shots killed us, so in the second half, we had to make a bigger run than we should have, and we just kept it close at halftime. It is kind of frustrating.”

Despite battling back, the Gators still finished with their worst shooting performance of the Golden era, making just 26 percent of their field-goal attempts (16-for-61).

Jones scored 10 points and matched a season high with three 3-pointers in his first start of the season. Jones is averaging 9.8 points over the last four games.

Colin Castleton led UF with his fourth double-double of the season and 17th of his career, posting 14 points and 13 rebounds to go along with six blocked shots.

“It’s encouraging that we were able to have enough grit to put ourselves in a great position to win the game. We have to come together like we did during our three-game winning streak and figure out something to stop digging ourselves in a hole,” Castleton said. “It’s not a good identity to win basketball games down 9-0, 9-2, 11-3, and a lot of that was missing some shots.”

Julius Marble led the Aggies (13-5, 5-0 SEC) with a career-high 19 points and Dexter Dennis also scored in double figures with 11 points.

“He’s good, got great touch. He’s a good big in this league,” Castleton said of Marble. “There’s a lot of guys in this league that have skill on the low block, and he’s one of them. He’s a good big, and we battled all night.

“I felt like I was able to get my buckets later on in the game because they were double-teaming and triple-teaming me and had to pass the ball and make the right plays. He’s a good big, it was a good battle.”

The Gators (10-8, 3-3 SEC) will be back on the road Saturday against Mississippi State at 8:30 p.m. on SEC Network.