The Gators’ first home conference game of the year was a steal — in which UF proved stealers are winners.
Florida (9-6, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) defeated Mississippi State (7-8, 0-2 SEC) 72-47 on Saturday night in the O’Connell Center, pulling together an all-around complete game to remain undefeated early in SEC play.
“Mississippi State traditionally, since (coach) Rick (Ray) has been there, has been a really good steal team so you gotta be careful with the ball,” coach Billy Donovan said. “But I thought our ball movement was really good, I thought we shared it. We played unselfishly,”
The Gators totaled 10 steals, 26 points off turnovers, four blocks, 31 rebounds and 19 assists against the Bulldogs to extend their SEC win streak to 24 straight.
Eli Carter stole the show as Florida’s first sub-in off the bench. The redshirt junior guard led the Gators with 20 points in 27 minutes.
“He’s playing more freely,” Dorian Finney-Smith said of Carter. “He’s back to playing Eli Carter basketball that the team knows he can play."
Finney-Smith was second to Carter with 16 total points, six rebounds and two blocks in 24 minutes.
Alex Murphy checked out of the game for less than five minutes after he took an elbow to the mouth when completing a layup that gave Florida an 18-5 lead.
After a few minutes off the court, the redshirt junior forward came back to make a dunk off a steal from Robinson.
Murphy, who is averaging 16.8 minutes in five games played, totaled 7 points, two rebounds and a steal in 13 minutes played.
Mississippi State closed out the first half with a last shot at the buzzer by freshman forward Demetrius Houston from beyond half court, heading into the locker room with a 20-point deficit. The entire O’Connell Center was in disbelief as the ball swung through the basket to get the Bulldogs three points closer to Florida — who led the whole first half.
The Bulldogs came back to secure the first two unanswered baskets of the second half, after which Donovan called a timeout as he began to see him team on the edge of slipping into that all-too-familiar second half slump.
Immediately after, walk-on senior forward Jacob Kurtz came up with a layup.
“The guy threw a hail Mary shot, that’s three points, and then we come out and Kasey (Hill) misses a running layup that he should have finished, in my opinion….and then 20 points is down to 16 and we kind of regrouped, we gathered ourselves we got it back up.”
While the Gators have started SEC play on the right foot, they are not planning on taking the victories for granted.
"When we work together, we win,” said point guard Kasey Hill, who finished Saturday’s game with seven points, seven assists and just one turnover. “But we have to be together for us to win."
Follow Erica A. Hernandez on Twitter @EricaAlyssa
Billy Donovan looks down the court while players celebrate during Florida's 72-47 win against Mississippi State on Saturday in the O'Connell Center
