Florida center Jason Jitoboh exits Tennessee game late in first half

Florida center Jason Jitoboh was down on the ground and writhing in pain after he took an inadvertent hand to the nose from Tennessee’s Olivier Nkamahoua, late in the first half of tonight’s Florida-Tennessee game. Florida’s trainers were pinching Jitoboh’s nose with a towel as he was walking off the floor to try and stop the bleeding.

Jitoboh was going up for a rebound in a crowd of players and Nkamahoua accidentally drilled him right in the nose with his hand. Officials stopped the game once he was down on the ground. He left the game with 2:30 remaining in the first half and and his loss was pivotal in the final outcome.

Tennessee fans and their head coach Rick Barnes were not happy, because they had a fast break on the other end of the floor, but it was whistled dead.

The injury to Jitoboh was huge, because Florida was already without its star center Colin Castleton due to a shoulder injury. Without Jitoboh, they didn’t have a center. He was still on the bench at the beginning of the second half.

The Gators led 42-34 at halftime after they had some hot-shooting from three early on.

Tempers flared early on in the game, with technical fouls being issued to both Florida and Tennessee after a heated verbal exchange between Santiago Vescovi and Tyree Appleby.

Appleby was feeling it early in this one–knocking down his first two shots from beyond-the-arc, plus adding in an assist and a steal–all within the first four minutes. Brandon McKissic also nailed two of his first three shots from downtown. Florida was scorching hot from deep–hitting four of their first five attempts from beyond-the-arc.

Florida led by 12 points with 2:30 remaining in the first half, right before Jitoboh’s injury. Tennessee was able to claw back in the second half and won 78-71.

The referees missed some pretty blatant foul calls on Tennessee in this one, too.

After the game Florida head coach Mike White did not have a timeline for Jitoboh’s return for the Gators, saying he could miss their next game against Oklahoma State. He also acknowledged how much his injury hurt Florida’s gameplan in the second half.