Quick takeaways from Gators’ win vs Missouri

The game was tied at the half and tight throughout, but Florida made most of its free throws down the stretch (despite two misses by Colin Castleton) to pull away.

Maybe the biggest free throws were the two made by Will Richard late on a 1-and-1 to extend Florida’s lead to 10 points. After Castleton’s misses, Missouri cut the lead to six, but Kyle Lofton’s fallaway 17-foot jumper was huge for Florida with 51.3 seconds to play.

Myreon Jones, who has gone from liability to asset in the last three weeks, made two free throws with 37.5 seconds to play as well to finish it.

Florida had another start that looked as if the Gators had tryptophan milkshakes with their pregame meal. Mizzou was able to get off to an 11-0 start to the game as Florida committed four turnovers. The Gators didn’t score until Kowacie Reeves hit a shot with 15 minutes to go in the half.

But the Gators used three-point shooting to get back into the game and eventually took a 26-25 lead. Despite 14 UF turnovers, the game was tied in part because the Tigers were 1-for-9 from beyond the arc.

Colin Castleton, who scored 16 points, became the second transfer in Florida history to pass the 1,000-point mark. The other was Dorian Finney-Smith.