Florida Gators basketball prevails on the road against Georgia Bulldogs

Led by Tre Mann’s 24 points, six rebounds and four assists, the Florida Gators secured a 92-84 road victory over the Georgia Bulldogs.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by Field Level Media and has been republished in its entirety below.

Led by Tre Mann‘s 24 points, six rebounds and four assists, the Florida Gators secured a 92-84 road victory over the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens on Saturday afternoon.

The Gators (8-4, 5-3 SEC) followed up their impressive upset of Tennessee on Tuesday by controlling the paint against the Bulldogs (9-5, 2-5). Florida won the rebounding battle 41-27, led by Omar Payne‘s nine boards to go along with 10 points.

Sahvir Wheeler finished with a double-double with 10 points and 10 assists as the Bulldogs shared the ball well totaling 22 assists on 32 made field goals. Andrew Garcia finished with a team-high 17 points and five rebounds for Georgia.

The Bulldogs had five players score in double figures as reserve guard K.D. Johnson totaled 16 points to help their bench outscore Florida’s 39-22. Justin Kier added 14 points and Toumani Camara had 11 points and five assists.

But the return of forward Colin Castleton, who missed Florida’s previous game with an ankle injury, helped set the tone for the Gators as he finished with 14 points, three rebounds and three assists off the bench.

Georgia’s PJ Horne, coming off a game-winning shot in the closing seconds against Kentucky, was held to two points on 1-of-7 shooting including 0-for-6 from 3-point range.

Florida scored 28 points in the paint in the first half and used an early 15-3 run to wipe out a 16-9 advantage Georgia had built in the game’s first five minutes.

Up 42-39 at the half, Florida opened the second half with a 16-3 run, shooting 7-for-10 during that stretch and led by as many as 17 points. The Gators took the lead for good on Noah Locke‘s three-pointer with 5:51 left in the first half.

Tyree Appleby finished with 14 points and led Florida’s tough defensive effort, which totaled 10 steals.

Locke finished with 16 points and made 4-of-10 3-pointers as the Gators shot 37-for-65 (56.9 percent) overall. Georgia shot 54.2 percent from the field (32-for-59) but only shot 30.4 percent (7-for-23) from 3-point range, and missed 11-of-24 free throw attempts.

 

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