It was an ugly game that required an extra five minutes to sort out the winner, but ultimately Florida basketball prevailed and avenged its earlier loss to the Ole Miss Rebels with a 62-57 victory in the O’Connell Center on Saturday. The Gators saw the return of center Colin Castleton, who led the way in the low-scoring affair, while point guard Tyree Appleby notched his first career double-digit assist game en route to the matchup’s only double-double.
Regulation came to a close with both teams knotted at 48 points apiece in a game with an over/under set at 131.5, but the Orange and Blue saw red in overtime, dropping 14 points to bury Ole Miss. It goes into the books as a Quadrant 3 win, which does not do much to bolster Florida’s NCAA Tournament hopes but would have been devastating had it been a loss.
The NET rankings on Sunday after the game recognized the results and promptly bumped the Gators up to No. 44 — up two spots from Saturday and five from our last update after the narrow win over the Missouri Tigers. They now sit nestled between a pair of Beehive State schools in the No. 43 Utah State Aggies and No. 45 Brigham Young Cougars.
Next up for Florida is a home match against the Georgia Bulldogs on Wednesday evening starting at 6:30 p.m. EST. The matchup currently represents a Quadrant 4 game for the Gators while this one will be a Quadrant 1 game for the Dawgs.
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