Florida basketball score, takeaways: No. 6 Gators routed by Florida State, again

By Adam Silverstein
November 10, 2019
Florida basketball score, takeaways: No. 6 Gators routed by Florida State, again
Basketball

Image Credit: GatorsMBK / Twitter

Despite some of the Florida Gators’ successes over the last few years, they and head coach Mike White continue to be completely outmatched by their in-state rivals, the Florida State Seminoles. Even at home in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, No. 6 Florida (1-1) was embarrassed 63-51 by Florida State (1-1) for its sixth straight loss in the series. White has fallen to 0-5 against FSU with the Gators being outscored by the ‘Noles 227-177 over the last three meetings.

Let’s take a look at Florida’s rough showing with our Fastbreak takeaways.

It was over when … Florida State continued to answer each Florida basket down the stretch with one of its own and retook a 14-point lead on a layup with 3:57 left to play. The Gators trailed by as many as 14 in the second half but hit back-to-back threes to cut their deficit to 10. They never got it closer as the ‘Noles matched them shot for shot over the final few minutes and finished with a clean 12-point.

Exceptional effort: Sophomore forward Keyontae Johnson was the only Florida player to do much of anything in the game, scoring a game-high 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting with four rebounds. No one else on the Gators’ roster made more than two baskets, and star graduate transfer F Kerry Blackshear went 0-for-5 from the field but made 10-of-14 free throws to go along with a game-high 13 boards.

Odds and ends: Outside of Johnson, his teammates combined to shoot 6 of 38 (.158) from the field … Florida lost both halves and only held a lead for 4:50 … the Gators were outscored 26-18 in the paint, 15-8 on the fastbreak and 13-9 off the bench … this is the first time since Nov. 20-22, 2008, that the Florida football team (56 vs. Vanderbilt) outscored the basketball team in the same week

What it means: These Gators are not ready for prime time — or a top-10 ranking. No matter how talented this team may be, there is no circumstance that a rested squad with plenty of time to prepare for a rival should lose like this on its home court. White has been absolutely owned by ‘Noles head coach Leonard Hamilton, who has dominated this series, particularly over the last three seasons. If Florida cannot compete with an unranked Florida State team (that lost to Pitt) at home, how is it going to battle top 25 teams the rest of the season? The Gators have some soul searching to do here as — beyond Johnson and Blackshear — no one appeared motivated to play on Sunday.

Up next: Florida will have a chance to bounce back from this disastrous performance when it hosts Towson on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET. The game will air on ESPN2. After that, it travels to face UConn next Sunday at 3 p.m.

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