Florida Basketball: Gators take down #2 ranked Auburn

Florida Gators stun #2 ranked Auburn Tigers in 63-62 victory

Wow.  Just wow.

In an absolute stunner of a game for the Florida basketball program, as well as Auburn, the Gators were able to take down the #2 ranked Auburn Tigers by a score of 63 to 62.  A game that came down to the final seconds, and had the O’Dome rocking, was an absolute spectacle to watch, even if a neutral fan.  The final possessions were essentially chaos, with Florida trying to run out the clock in the waning moments by passing and nearly losing the ball on multiple occasions.

Florida basketball – first-half breakdown

The first half of this game was relatively slow scoring-wise, with Colin Castleton having 10 in the first half and Tyree Appleby accruing 6 of his own.  Much of the first half was missed shots and rebounds, which made for a slow pace much of the time.  The main strength of Florida in the first half was on the defensive end, holding Auburn from scoring at all from 15:16 until 11:33, which helped Florida basketball to retain the lead going into halftime.

Another statistic worth noting was that the Gators did not go down at any point during the first half, scoring the first shot and leading all the way into halftime.  This is an extremely impressive feat against such a highly ranked offensive team, which should not go overlooked.

Florida basketball – second-half breakdown

Entering the second half, Florida was up 22-21, however, there would be nearly double the amount of scoring in the second half comparatively.  The main emphasis in the second half was on Tyree Appleby, who was monstrous all game but hit what seemed like a game-changing 3 pointer with 2:17 left in the second half to put Florida up 61-53.  Auburn would then go on to have a 7-1 scoring run off of 5 free throws combined by K.D. Johnson and Jabari Smith, and then a made layup by K.D. Johnson with 1:26 remaining.

Colin Castleton would then be fouled and make one of his two free throws for a 63-60 lead.  K.D. Johnson would continue his scoring via a foul and brought Auburn back within 1 point with 24 seconds left.  This led to one of the more chaotic in-bounding attempts, as Florida would get the ball into play, pass it, then lost a handle on the ball, picked it up again, threw it across the width of the court, and brought the clock all the way down to 13 seconds.  Phlandrous Fleming Jr. would turn over the ball on the inbound pass with 9 seconds left by stepping out of bounds.  Auburn would then inbound the ball, run-up to the 3 point line, and an attempted pass to Walker Kessler was swatted, ending the game and securing an absolute stunner for Florida.

What this means for Florida basketball

Overall this win is a massive benefit to the Florida Gators, as is beating any ranked team.  Knocking off an in-conference rival, after losing to them previously in the year, and bringing your record further up (now to 17-10) is all good news.  This also puts the Gators at .500 in conference games as well as 7-7 and should put them more on the radar come March.

Tyree Appleby becoming more and more impressive by the day is probably the best to come of this though, finishing the night with 26 points on 7-15 shooting and 2 assists is most definitely what put this team over the top today.  Getting the fanbase more involved will also be a perk, as a huge upset win like this obviously draws attention to the team more often than not.