Gators rally with historic comeback for first win at FSU since 2012
Trailing by 19 late in the first half, the Florida Gators stormed back in the next period Friday to win their first game at Florida State since 2012.
UF went into the locker room down 43-26 and then exploded with a 33-5 run, outscoring FSU 50-24 in the second half en route to 76-67 victory.
It marked the fourth-largest comeback in program history and the second-largest rally for the Gators on the road.
“It makes the win even sweeter, coming back all the way from 17 (down) at halftime to win a rivalry game, first time we’ve won here in 10 years as a program, pretty neat,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “I thought we were going to be well-prepared for this game, and we didn’t play like it in the first half, though. I thought we played on our heels. I didn’t think we were aggressive enough.
“We weren’t shot-ready when we got penetration kick-outs in the first half. They blocked a couple of our threes. We just didn’t have a punch to us, and that was disappointing. We addressed it at halftime. Obviously, we changed a couple things. Defensively, we really tried to turn up the heat and the pressure because I felt like they were too comfortable offensively in the first half.”
The Seminoles jumped out a double-digit lead as Florida shot 27.6 percent in the opening period, including 1-of-12 from 3-point range. The Gators then had three separate double-digit runs of their own, a season-best 14-0 run to go from nine down to a 49-46 lead.
Colin Castleton had another dominant performance with 25 points and nine rebounds, including 19 points in the second half.
“Coming out in the first half, we were a little lackadaisical energy-wise, just something wasn’t there. We just didn’t bring it, that’s what it came down to. We came out and didn’t have enough energy and weren’t rebounding as good as we should have,” Castleton said. “We came back in the locker room, and it was pretty high-energy in there. Can’t say everything that was said, but we understood the assignment coming into the second half. Being down 17, we just tried to chip away little by little with our energy.”
The Gators switched up their rotation after the break, playing backups Trey Bonham (15 minutes) and Alex Fudge (12 minutes) more while sitting starter Kowacie Reeves and Riley Kugel for the entire second half.
Bonham had his best game as a Gator with 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists off the bench, while Fudge dunked over 7-foot-4 center Naheem McLeod and also blocked Matthew Cleveland from behind on a fast break.
“It was toughness,” Bonham said of the second-half change. “We knew we were being soft, and they were getting lots of layups. It was really defensive. We knew shots were going to fall, and we didn’t make shots in the first half, so defensively, we wanted to change that.”
Florida’s Will Richard added 13 points and has scored double figures in all four games this season. FSU also had three players in double figures, led by Caleb Mills with a season-high 21 points.
The Seminoles fall to 0-4 on the season and host Mercer on Monday, while the Gators improved to 3-1 and will be back on the court Thursday against Xavier (3-1) in the Phil Knight Invitational.
Florida’s comeback victory Friday snapped the program four-game losing streak in Tallahassee.
“I love it. Absolutely love being a part of it,” Golden said. “This is why you coach in college basketball – to be part of an incredible program, get to wear this ‘F’ on my chest here, come in to Florida State, incredible program.
“Coach [Leonard] Hamilton has been doing it a long time and been winning at an incredibly high level for a long time. Great crowd in the building tonight. Obviously, you could tell everybody cared what the result was.”
