Senior Myreon Jones sank a career-high seven 3-pointers and finished with 23 points as Florida continued its dominance of Georgia with a 72-63 win on Wednesday in Gainesville, Fla.
Jones shot 7-for-11 from beyond the arc and Colin Castelton added 13 points, nine rebounds and four blocks for Florida (16-8, 6-5 Southeastern Conference), which won its fourth straight game.
Tyree Appleby scored 11 points and Phlandrous Fleming Jr. had eight points and six rebounds for the Gators, who never trailed en route to defeating Georgia for the fifth straight meeting.
Kario Oquendo scored a team-high 22 points — 15 in the second half — to go along with eight rebounds for Georgia (6-18, 1-10). The Bulldogs lost their fourth straight game and fell for the 12th time in the past 13 contests.
Aaron Cook added 14 points, Braelen Bridges had 12 and Jabri Abdur-Rahim chipped in eight points and seven rebounds for the Bulldogs.
Leading 38-30 at halftime, the Gators pushed the gap to 53-42 on Kowacie Reeves’ one-handed dunk with 12:08 left. Florida stretched the lead to 61-47 following Appleby’s 3-pointer with 7:52 left.
Georgia responded by going on a 14-3 run to pull to within 64-61 on Oquendo’s layup with 2:56 left before Castleton’s jumper pushed the lead to five with 2:35 left.
Florida shot 45.6 percent (26-for-57) from the field, including 34.3 percent (12-for-35) from 3-point range, in addition to converting Georgia’s 14 turnovers into 16 points.
Georgia hit 37.5 percent (21-for-56) of its field-goal attempts, including 20 percent (5-for-25) from long distance. The Bulldogs also finished 16-for-20 from the foul line while the Gators were just 8-for-13.
Florida took a 24-12 lead following Reeves’ second 3-pointer of the game.
The Gators, led by Jones’ 12 first-half points on 4-for-6 shooting from beyond the arc, shot 53.6 percent (15-for-28) in the first half, including 37.5 percent (6-for-16) from long range.
Led by Abdur-Rahim’s eight first-half points, the Bulldogs shot 42.3 percent (11-for-26) from the field, including 27.3 percent (3-for-11) from 3-point range, in the opening 20 minutes.
–Field Level Media
