SUNRISE, Fla. – South Florida guard Caleb Murphy summed up his team’s 66-55 loss to the Florida Gators on Saturday afternoon in the annual Orange Bowl Classic at FLA Live Arena.
“First and foremost,” Murphy said of the game played in what is normally a hockey arena, “it was cold as hell.”
That same frigid quality could be used to describe both teams’ shooting.
Florida (8-3) won despite shooting just 39% from the floor, including 8-for-26 on 3-pointers (30.8%).
“We’ve been struggling in field-goal percentage,” Gators forward Colin Castleton said. “Everyone knows that.”
USF (4-5) shot 42.1% overall but just 2-for-11 on 3s (18.2%). The Gators prevailed by crashing the boards, creating a 45-27 rebounding advantage, including 18-7 on offense.
Florida also had a 14-6 edge on second-chance points.
“That was the difference in the game,” USF coach Brian Gregory said.
Florida’s defense was the other big factor. After USF cut its 16-point deficit to just 48-45 on Javon Greene’s 3 with 9 minutes left in the second half, the Bulls went dry.
The Bulls went the next 6:25 without a field goal as Florida outscored them 11-3 during that span.
“Defense is our identity,” Gators forward Anthony Duruji said.
Castleton, despite making just 3-of-9 shots, finished with a double-double: 12 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Phlandrous Fleming Jr. added 12 points off the bench, and Duruji had a near double-double with 11 points and 9 rebounds.
Gregory was asked about Castleton, who had 6 offensive rebounds – one less than the entire Bulls team.
“He’s turned himself into a good player,” Gregory said. “He doesn’t force anything.
“We tried to dig down and make him uncomfortable. We forced him into three turnovers. I thought we did a good job.”
USF was shorthanded due to a thigh injury that sidelined 7-0, 280-pound center Russel Tchewa, who missed his first game of the season. Bayron Matos, a 6-9, 250-pound freshman, got his first USF start and had 2 points and no rebounds in 18 minutes.
Murphy led USF with game highs in points (16) and steals (3). He also had a game-high 5 assists, making 8-of-17 shots, all of his damage inside the 3-point line.
The Gators, though, held all other Bulls to 10 points or less.
That defense allowed Florida to survive a poor start during which the Gators missed their first 7 shots and also had 4 turnovers as USF took a 10-3 lead.
From there, Florida outscored USF 27-8 to take a 30-18 lead into halftime.
Florida improved to 19-5 against USF and 18-4 in the Orange Bowl Classic.
“It wasn’t perfect. Our shooting percentage has to go up. That’s what we’re searching for,” Gators coach Mike White said of his team’s performance. “But I thought we played pretty well [overall]. They are hard to play against.”
Notable
White said his players tend to “get a little pouty when we don’t get a call. When we don’t score on physicality, we need to stop looking at the officials.”
Florida has just one more non-conference game – on Wednesday against visiting Stony Brook – before starting its SEC schedule Dec. 29 at Ole Miss. That will start a run of 19 consecutive games against Power 5 programs.
After a 6-0 start, UF is 2-3.
Although the schools are located just 115 miles apart, this was the first time the programs have met since the Gators beat the Bulls in December of 2002.
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