No. 4 Florida basketball fails to handle lofty ranking in home upset loss to Missouri

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Before a raucous home crowd with students back in full force, Florida basketball had a chance to show it could handle its lofty No. 4 ranking.

Instead, the Florida Gators (15-2. 2-2 SEC) looked anything but elite in an 83-82 upset loss to Missouri (14-3, 3-1 SEC) at the O’Connell Center late Tuesday that exposed some concerns.

For the second straight game, Florida got off to a lackluster start. Florida recovered from falling behind seven points in first half against Arkansas in an eventual 71-63 road win on Saturday. But this time around, Florida couldn’t overcome a more substantial 18-point first-half deficit against the Tigers.

Missouri was the aggressor throughout the game, pushing around UF in the same arena where Florida bullied then No. 1 Tennessee a week earlier. That was evident late in the first half, when two of UF’s frontline players, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu, failed to box out Missouri guard Tony Perkins on a missed free throw. Perkins banked in the putback as he was fouled and completed the three-point play that gave the Tigers a 50-34 halftime lead.

“They played harder than us,” Florida basketball coach Todd Golden said. “They were more ready to play than we were, and obviously jumped on us in the first half, and we were not ready for it ― and obviously starts with me. I need to do a better job making sure we’re ready to go and making sure that we understand what’s in front of us.”

Florida reached its lofty status by pushing other teams around, ranking first in the SEC in second nationally in rebounding margin at plus-12.7 entering the game. Missouri outrebounded Florida 17-15 in the first half and grabbed 11 offensive rebounds in the second half. Though Florida finished with a slight 37-36 rebounding advantage, the boards didn’t play a significant factor in a game that UF entered as a 10.5-point favorite.

“The lack of urgency and effort in the first half, you can’t let that happen,” Florida senior guard Will Richard said. “I felt like we should have been…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/no-4-florida-basketball-fails-120319563.html

Author : The Gainesville Sun

Publish date : 2025-01-15 12:03:00

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