Gators drop SEC road opener as Ole Miss explodes in second half
The Gators dropped their SEC road opener Wednesday in a 103-85 loss at Ole Miss. The game got out of hand early in the second half behind an offensive explosion by the Rebels (14-1, 1-1 SEC).
Down 44-40 at the break, the Gators trailed by double digits for the majority of the second half. Ole Miss built a 20-point advantage at the 12:18 mark with a 20-5 run and led by as many as 23.
The Rebels shot 75 percent from the floor in the second half and 59.1 percent for the game.
“They went 21-for-28 in the second half. It’s just terrible defense,” UF coach Todd Golden said. “Credit to Ole Miss, the way they came out in the second half I thought they made a lot of really tough shots early. Specifically [Allen] Flanigan hit two or three of those baseline fadeaways.
“Those are shots that we want him to take, and you’ve got to tip your cap that he was able to knock them down. Once it snowballed a little bit, I didn’t think we did a good job pulling ourselves out.”
Flanigan finished with 17 points and was one of four double-digit scorers for the Rebels. Mississippi senior forward Jae Brakefield had a career-high 28 points on 11-for-16 shooting, senior guard Matthew Murrell scored with 23 and junior guard Jaylen Murray added 12, while 7-foot-5 senior center Jamarion Sharp posted nine blocked shots and 8 points.
“Obviously, Sharp did a good job with his rim protection, nine blocks, but I thought we did a good job of attacking and some of those I thought maybe could’ve been fouls,” Golden said. “But again, they just got us tonight, bottom line, end of story, especially in the second half.”
Florida junior guard Walter Clayton finished with 23 points for the second straight game. Grad transfer guard Zyon Pullin added 16 points along with 11 apiece from senior forward Tyrese Samuel and freshman center Alex Condon, who posted a double-double with 15 rebounds.
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Samuel, however, committed five of the Gators’ 13 turnovers and the team shot 38.1 percent in the second half. The Rebels also scored 21 fast-break points to Florida’s five. The 103 points by Ole Miss marks the most allowed by UF this season.
“Obviously, our defensive effort tonight was atrocious, specifically in the second half,” Golden said. “Again, this was a team that was coming off a really tough loss (at Tennessee), and they responded really well. This was our first road game in the SEC, and we didn’t handle it very well.”
The teams went back and forth for the game’s opening 10 minutes before the Rebels went on a 17-3 run. But Florida took their punch and battled back in the first half, trimming the deficit to as low as two points.
“In the first half when the lead got to nine, we were able to cut that thing down,” Golden said. “I thought we played with good poise at the end of the half to cut it to four and had the ball coming out. But turnovers starting the second half kind of set the tone, and we didn’t do a good job of battling that way.”
UF sophomore guard Riley Kugel came off the bench once again but did not play in the second half, finishing with no points for the first time this season and a season-low four minutes.
The Gators (10-5, 0-2 SEC) are back home Saturday against Arkansas at 4 p.m. on ESPN.
