Florida Gators Suffer Backbreaking Loss to Vanderbilt, 88-80

Despite being in must-win mode for the rest of the 2022-23 regular season, the Gators dropped a crucial matchup at home to a formidable Vanderbilt squad.

Photo: Riley Kugel; Credit: Zach Goodall

Shooting 10% from beyond the arc, 60.9% from the line and experiencing over six minutes without a basket down the stretch of the game, Florida suffered a backbreaking Quad III loss to Vanderbilt, the first lower quadrant loss of the year for the Gators.

Colin Castleton, Kowacie Reeves Jr. and Riley Kugel combined for 55 points on Saturday afternoon, but Vandy center Liam Roberts' 32 and the Commodores' 12 three-pointers proved too much for the Gators in Gainesville.

It was an uncharacteristic outing for Florida, as the nation's No. 11 defense took a backseat to the usually-stagnant offense, at least in the beginning.

Both offenses started hot from the field, knocking down over 60% of their shot attempts in the first ten minutes of the first half. Then, pairing strong looks at the cup and little defensive resistance, the Gators and Commodores skipped through the regularly scheduled media timeouts as no dead ball turnovers or fouls were committed.

In that stretch, Vandy found success on the inside with Roberts — connecting on his first four shot attempts of the game over Castleton — to take as large as an eight-point lead. He posted 17 points on 7-of-12 from the field in the first 20 minutes.

Todd Golden exhausted his first timeout with 9:59 remaining to present his team a breather amid the fast-paced start just after Castleton punched through a lob from Kyle Lofton to cut the deficit to four.

The action slowed from that point as the two units settled into the contest, but not enough for the shooting numbers to drop under 50% for either team in the half.

Kowacie Reeves Jr. was a spark in his seven first-half minutes off the bench. He accounted for seven points, including an emphatic slam inside over Roberts off the baseline. 

steal ➡️ POSTER.

🔸 wacie slams with AUTHORITY 🔨

📺 https://t.co/ENZLIEL0fC#GoGators pic.twitter.com/fRduby76rU

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) February 11, 2023

Kugel added a dunk off a baseline out-of-bounds play to give UF its first lead since the game's first minute.

The Commodores, however, used a corner three from Trey Thomas — one of their seven from beyond the arc in the first half — to take a three-point lead with the clock ticking under 10 seconds. Florida pushed the ball down the court and found Kugel slashing toward the basket for a buzzer-beat layup to head into the half down just one, 42-41.

The back-and-forth action continued into the second half as Castleton and Roberts traded blows on the offensive end.

But, Roberts picked up his fourth foul with 7:29 remaining against Lofton on a drive to the bucket. That forced him to take a seat and opened the window for Florida to retake control of the game.

It failed.

Castleton produced his fourth-straight 20-point game, but Roberts won the one-on-one battle to aid his team to win the war.

The Commodores' hot shooting from beyond the arc continued to extend their lead to nine with 2:47 left. They connected on the aforementioned 12 triples, the main proponent for their lead throughout most of the contest despite fewer field goal makes.

That proved to be the difference in the Gators' eight-point defeat.

Florida will remain in Gainesville in its next contest as it takes on the Ole Miss Rebels on Wednesday.

Stay tuned to All Gators for continuous coverage of Florida Gators football, basketball and recruiting. Follow along on social media at @AllGatorsOnFN on Twitter and All Gators on FanNation-Sports Illustrated on Facebook.

Get your Gators football, basketball and other sporting events tickets from SI Tickets here.