By Ken Cross
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Missouri Tigers delivered a blow that hit No. 5 Florida early and they stopped a late Gators rally to leave with an 83-82 win in Gainesville.
Missouri started the game with its physical approach and the Tigers were aggressive on offense as they made 10 of their first 16 field goals in taking a 30-17 lead midway through the first half.
“We just did not match their enthusiasm,” Florida coach Todd Golden explained. “We didn’t match the physicality and we just allowed them to come into our building to get comfortable, which just doesn’t happen very often.”
While Missouri was looking to attack Florida inside with Mark Mitchell and its deep backcourt, Tigers’ shooter Caleb Grill made his first four three-point shots and the three of those came within 55 seconds.
“Our ability to shoot the basketball in the first half gave us the obvious execution,” said Missouri coach Dennis Gates, “But Caleb Grill stretched that lead on his own. He was on fire.”
Missouri grabbed its largest lead at 42-23 with 7:22 left in the first half when Robinson hit a three and drove the right lane on back-to-back possessions. His playmaking skills were a huge reason the Tigers shot 54.8 percent from the floor in the first half and led 44-34 at the break.
‘I’ve been a little concerned about our group in terms of we’ve just had some very emotional games lately,” said Florida coach Todd Golden. “Really all three of our conference games so far had been very emotional and this was, for lack of a better term, a ‘trap situation. We as a staff and as a program did not think of it as a trap game.’”
Even after Missouri took a quick 50-34 lead out of halftime, the Gators fought back to within five as Will Richard scored eight consecutive points while Rueben Chinyelu was active on the inside with a pair of stick backs.
Chinyelu and Walter Clayton, Jr., were able to bring Florida to within a one-possession deficit, but Mitchell and Rodney Pierce thwarted the Gators’ possible come-from-behind win with a pair of dunks off of penetration and a steal by freshman guard T.O. Barrett.
“When you come into the game with the wrong mentality, you leave yourself susceptible to a situation like tonight where you put yourself in a really big hole and you have to dig out,” analyzed Golden.
Gates has rebuilt his roster to be a factor in the SEC and across college basketball. The Tigers scored 13 points off of 18 Florida turnovers and they made 11 three-point field goal after averaging 8.6 per game.
“The physicality of our league says one thing,” said Missouri head coach Dennis Gates. “Our players, Mark Mitchell is physical. All of our guards are physical and ‘Ant’ Robinson is one of the most physical point guards, most efficient point guards in the country.”