Breaking down Florida’s grinding loss to Xavier on Thanksgiving
Florida basketball opened up the Phil Night Legacy in Portland, Oregon, on Thanksgiving Day with a loss to the Xavier Musketeers by a final score of 90-83. The matchup between a Southeastern Conference school and a Big East representative did not go quite how Gators fans would have liked after having stuffed themselves with dinner on this evening.
Tre Bonham’s 23 points led the way while Will Richard followed with 18 and Riley Kugel with 12 to round out the Gators in double digits; Richard also paced the squad with three steals and Kyle Lofton maxed out the assists with six. Kowacie Reeves sat this one out due to a coach’s decision that was not elaborated upon.
The biggest story was Colin Castleton’s general ineffectiveness on offense throughout the game, scoring just 11 points while grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking four shots. That is a rather modest double-double given his 5-for-14 effort from the field as well as going just 1-for-2 from the free-throw line in 32 minutes played.
Take a look below at a chronological breakdown of the game action as Florida’s second loss of the season unfurled.
Gators get off to a slow start
Florida actually scored the first five points thanks to a game-opening layup by Lofton as well as a three-pointer by [autotag]CJ Felder[/autotag], but Xavier responded with 14 unanswered points to give them a comfortable cushion six minutes into the game. The early run was fueled by a combination of outside and inside shooting as well as some scores from the charity stripe.
... but managed to hang tough for most of the first half
Castleton snapped the run with a dunk to make it 14-7 in favor of the opponent. The Gators continued to chip away at the lead until a free throw by Bonham knotted things up at 21 with just over nine minutes remaining. The two teams battled back and forth, tying and trading the lead until the final two minutes.
A weak finish to the first half put Florida in a hole
Todd Golden’s squad squandered an opportunity to go into the locker room on a high note, allowing Xavier to take a four-point lead that they ultimately hold onto at the end of the half. Florida looked out of sync and lacked focus during crunch time. The Gators finished shooting 48% overall from the floor but the Musketeers notched a 59% mark while the two teams nearly pulled down the same number of boards at 16 and 15, respectively.
Gators came out swinging in the second half
A four-point halftime deficit was turned into a three-point lead during the first three minutes of the second frame. A pair of free throws extended the lead to six for Xavier to open things up but Florida manage to outplay their opponents and take the upper hand. The stretch was capped by a three-pointer by Kugel and was the level of play Golden wants to see.
A five-point swing took the momentum away from Florida
A missed dunk on a breakaway by Alex Fudge while the game was tied at 58, followed by a transition three by Xavier, took the wind out of the Gators’ sails. The Musketeers would drain another transition three shortly after to push their lead to six, completely deflating Florida’s confidence. The deficit would get as large as 11 before…
Florida came storming back
The Gators did let things get away and hung around long enough to put together a little run of their own, cutting the lead to two with 5:39 left on a Castleton post-up jumper. The push was enough to force Xavier into burning a timeout.
But it just was not enough
The Gators could not overcome that two-point barrier and ultimately fell short of victory. Things got a little ugly in the end with Xavier taunting Florida as the Musketeers shut the door in the final minutes. But overall, the Gators just got outplayed thanks in large part to Xavier’s ability to neutralize Castleton on offense.
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