An emotional pregame Senior Day ceremony and a starting lineup change contributed to a slow start defensively for No. 5 Florida basketball against Mississippi State.
The Florida Gators found themselves down 10 points in the first half after Mississippi State got off to a torrid start, going 10-of-13 from the field.
But UF responded with a game-altering 18-0 run and didn’t look back in a 108-74 win over the Bulldogs before 10,967 in its regular season home finale at the O’Connell Center.
Florida honored center Micah Handlogten and guard Xaivian Lee in pregame Senior Day ceremonies. Then, Handlogten started in place of forward Thomas Haugh, who was held out for precautionary reasons with a foot injury.
UF went down 24-14 at the 11:03 mark when guard Ja’Borri McGhee scored on an open layup before the game’s second TV timeout.
“We were just a little caught in the moment,” Florida basketball coach Todd Golden said. “We started a very unique lineup we probably won’t see again ever with those guys, and Mississippi State was hot, you know, they came out and made shots and made us pay for defense that wasn’t elite. And I think once we got kind of back to our regular rotations and got kind of comfortable with who was out there, we settled.”
Florida started a frontline of Rueben Chinyelu at center, with the 7-foot-1 Handlogten at power forward and 6-foot-11 Alex Condon at small forward.
“When we start with me at the 4, Condo at the 3, that’s something we’ve never done, even in practice, ever,” Handlogten said. “Definitely took some adjustments. I feel like that’s why we got off to a little bit of a slow start. But once we made those adjustments, we started rolling again.”
How Florida basketball regrouped to take control of the game
Down 24-17, freshman CJ Ingram got Florida back into the game with back-to-back 3-pointers, cutting MSU’s lead to 24-23 with 8:59 left.
Florida then went ahead to stay 25-24 on an inside basket by senior forward Alex Condon, who wound up a point shy of his career-high with 26 points.
After three free throws by junior guard Urban Klavzar, a driving basket by Lee and a short jumper from Handlogten, Florida was up 32-24 with 5:30 left.
“Late in that first half I felt like we got our feet under us, started playing a lot faster, just playing better together as team,” Lee said. “I think it starts with getting stops. It kind of just ebbs and flows with the game, but I felt like when we settled in, it was really good.”
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: How Florida basketball turned up defensive intensity to rout Mississippi State
Reporting by Kevin Brockway, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
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