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Despite holding a sixteen point lead with six minutes to play in the first half and then point lead at the intermission, the Florida Gators dropped to 12-8 with a 78-71 home loss to Mississippi State.

How it happened:

Florida came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, just as they did against No. 1 Baylor on Saturday. Florida’s freshmen dominated the first half. A type of domination that they were hyped up to have. The freshman combined 10-17 from the floor through the first 10 minutes of the game and totaled 18 points together.

Florida was lead by Scottie Lewis who went 5 for 6 from the field and 3 for 4 from behind the arc for 13 points. But Florida got it done on the defensive end as well, lead by a huge Omar Payne stuff at the rim midway through the first half.

Kerry Blackshear continued to do his thing, on his birthday, sporting the #24, he was due for something special. His first half line read a solid 7 point, 4 rebound effort.

Florida took a 10 point lead into the break at 45-35. But this 10 point lead would fade fast as Mississippi State came out of the break and cut the lead down to seven with 15:41 remaining.

Mississippi State went on a 7-0 run from the 15-minute mark until the under-12 media break. To this point Florida had scored only seven points in the half. This 7-0 Bulldogs run stemmed from a frustratingly sterotypical four minute scoring drought for the Gators.

Mississippi State ended up tying the game up with 11 minutes to go in the game and things stayed within one possession for a while. The Bulldogs however, took their first lead since the beginning of the game with just under nine to play.

Mississippi state seemed to figure out how to slow down the Florida freshman attack. As the freshman combined for 25 in the first half and through 13 minutes of the second they had combined for just six.

Mississippi State extended their lead to sixwith 3:30 left in the half. Down the stretch, Florida hit another wall, a three minute drought, which allowed Mississippi State to extend the lead to 73-66 with two minutes to play.

A final nail in the coffin happened with :39 left on the clock. MSU’s DJ Stewart missed the front end of a one and one, but Florida did a poor job of boxing out and Robert Woodard clutched the board and got fouled going up for a lay-in.

Fast Facts

Nembhard: 10 points 3 assists

Locke: 5 points 3 assists

Johnson: 10 points 5 rebounds

Lewis: 17 points 1 rebound

Blackshear: 13 points 7 rebounds

Quick Stats

FG: 46%

3FG: 38%

TO: 11

FT: 77%

Rebound +/-: -7

Up Next

Florida is back in action on Saturday Feb 1, in Nashville as the 12-8 Gators take on a struggling 8-11 Commodore team.