Vandy, which has the SEC’s leading scorer in Scottie Pippen Jr., scored no baskets in the final 10:47 of the game.
Zero. None. Nada.
Pippen Jr. played only five minutes of the first half because of foul trouble and the Gator defense never let him get into any kind of rhythm. He finished the game with six points on 1-for-10 shooting.
Florida did revert to form – and not the good kind – offensively. The Gators shot 20 times from behind the arc in the first half and finished the game shooting 25% from three. And they were 6 of 13 from the free-throw line after shooting 80% against Mississippi State Wednesday night.
Didn’t matter.
The Gators did not close the first half well and led by only three after a bad Myreon Jones turnover led to a Vanderbilt runout basket. But they started the half on a 12-0 run and never looked back.
As a result, the Gators are back to .500 in the SEC at 3-3 and 12-6 overall.
They obviously did it on defense by holding Vanderbilt to three second-half field goals. Florida also had only eight turnovers.
Tyree Appleby led Florida in scoring with 11 points (eight in the first half) but he needed 10 shots to get there. No other Florida player scored in double figures.
Didn’t matter.
Playing its second straight game without injured center Colin Castleton, UF still had three blocked shots and won the battle of the boards against a team that is last in the SEC in rebounding.
Florida shot 38% for the game. Wednesday night’s hero Anthony Duruji had only seven points, four turnovers and faced foul trouble.
Didn’t matter.