Florida’s 35-point blowout win at LSU on Wednesday snapped a losing streak, jazzed the locker room and re-introduced No. 25 UF’s overlooked weapons on offense.
It was more than a win. It was a historic offensive onslaught.
The Gators sank a school-record 19 three-pointers.
They scored the most points in a first half (58) since UF started keeping records in 1996.
Their 106 points were the most UF has ever scored in an SEC road game that didn’t end in overtime.
Florida’s scoring torrent was crucial for a drought-stricken UF offense that made just 19 percent of three-pointers during its two-game losing streak.
Gators coach Mike White confessed before traveling to Baton Rouge that he didn’t know how to unclutter UF’s offense. So when talking to reporters on Thursday, he made a point to shift the credit to the players rather than anything the staff had done differently.
“It wasn’t me. It was our guys,” the second-year coach said.
“They met for a long time, about 2 hours … and just kind of recommitted to a higher level of focus.”
The players emphasized defensive focus at the meeting, which White said made it odd when the Gators logged their most effective offensive showcase of the year.
Even more unexpected was a perfect 5-for-5 performance on three-pointers from freshman Eric Hester. Hester came into the game having only played 50 minutes of college basketball, and left the game with 16 points, more than he’d scored in UF’s 19 games prior to Wednesday.
Hester — who was recruited for his hounding defense — registered the first 5-for-5 three-point game of the decade for UF.
But he wasn’t the only unexpected stat-sheet stuffer.
Junior point guard Chris Chiozza dished a career-high 10 assists in the game as well.
Florida forward Devin Robinson also stamped out his slump Wednesday in Baton Rouge. Florida’s third-leading scorer notched a career-best 24 points, shattering a six-game streak where he never scored more than 12.
“I thought Devin was amazing,” White said. “Devin played arguably his best game as a Gator.”
But despite a rebranded identity on offense, Florida’s defense has held only one opponent to under 43 percent shooting since conference play began in 2016.
Florida’s defense will get a chance to make a statement on Saturday, when UF takes a break from its SEC slate to play at Oklahoma (8-11) in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
“Hopefully we can maintain some momentum,” White said. “You would think that our locker room right now has got some confidence in that we bounced back”
But despite an emphatic snapping of UF’s losing streak on Wednesday, White said Florida has to keep up the intensity.
“We haven’t fixed anything,” he said. “We’re not a great team. But we’ve had a good few days here, and we need several more.”
Contact Matt Brannon at mbrannon@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @MattB_727.
UF center John Egbunu celebrates with a teammate during Florida's 80-76 win over Georgia on Jan. 14, 2017, in the O'Connell Center.
