Florida basketball: Gators use fantastic offense to blowout South Carolina
By Will Thomas
Florida basketball knew that they were welcoming a struggling South Carolina team to Exactech Arena tonight. With a big game looming on Saturday, it’s easy to overlook the inferior opponent and fall into the trap.
The Gators did the exact opposite of that.
Florida used what may have been their best offensive performance of the season to absolutely annihilate the Gamecocks and send them home with even more issues than they had before.
The Gators took down South Carolina 81-60.
They lead by only eight at halftime but came out of the locker room inspired and put on a show for their home crowd.
The Gators had five guys score in double figures. Colin Castleton, Riley Kugel, Will Richard, Kyle Lofton, and Kowacie Reeves all had great games scoring the ball.
Castleton, surprise surprise, lead the Gators with 18 points. He could’ve had a decent bit more too if it weren’t for some foul trouble he ran into late in the first half.
Myreon Jones made a very quiet run at a triple-double. He scored nine points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and racked up eight assists.
Riley Kugel’s 14 was his best outing of the season, as he shot 2-4 from three-point range and was efficient scoring at the rim.
It was great to see Kowacie Reeves start to look like himself again. Earlier in the week, we commented on his recent struggles. Tonight, however, he seemed to have his confidence back. He scored 15 points on 3-7 from three-point range and got two blocks on the defensive end.
One big storyline from the game was that Colin Castleton broke into the top 5 in Florida basketball history in career blocks.
This was a big win for the Gators as they’re about to enter a four-game gauntlet. We’ll see if they can keep their momentum rolling on the road this weekend at Kansas State.
Keep up with Florida basketball at Hail Florida Hail.