Emerald Coast Times

For a night, at least, the Florida Gators didn't spend their post-game bemoaning a slew of missed shots that cost them in a close game. That's how their last two games went down — losses to Oklahoma and 20th-ranked Auburn — as Coach Todd Golden found encouragement in his first UF team's ability to score around the rim, defend and take care of the ball. 

On Wednesday, the latter failed them miserably in a 66-63 loss to Texas A&M in the the Gators' home Southeastern Conference opener at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. UF committed a season-high 20 turnovers that were converted into 21 points in a game the Gators (7-7, 0-2) basically played from behind throughout, but actually led — no lie — before the opening tip was even tossed. 

More on that later. 

Aggies guard Wade Taylor IV tossed in a driving tear-drop shot with 42 seconds to play and the Gators came up empty on their final three offensive possessions, allowing A&M to get out of the O'Dome with the win and dropping Florida (7-7, 0-2) to its worst 14-game start since the 1995-96 season. 

Taylor's bucket pushed the Aggies (8-5, 1-0) in front, 65-63, with UF fifth-year senior guard Kyle Lofton missing a jumper at his team's end for the tie. A&M's Andre Gordon grabbed the rebound, but fell to the floor and was called for traveling, giving the Gators a re-do. On UF's second chance, guard Trey Bonham, who led all scorers with 21 points, drove baseline but was called for an offensive foul, the team's 21s turnover of the game — and Bonham's seventh. After a Florida foul, Tyrece Radford (15 points) made one of two free throws with 6.2 seconds left, taking the Aggies' margin to three.

Bonham, who hit four 3s during the game, frantically dribbled into the half court and let fly a 3-ball at the buzzer that banged off the back of the rim, as UF lost a game when it out-shot its opponent overall, from distance and the free-throw line.

"There's a ton of correctable errors that we made that we've got to address," UF coach Todd Golden said afterward, putting those 20 turnovers on their home floor at the top of his list. "We just weren't settled. We couldn't get settled against their pressure." 

And yet the Gators, in losing their third straight, shot 45.5 percent for the game (their best of the previous three outings), including 36.8 percent from the arc (7-for-19, also their best in that span) after combining to go a disastrous 5-for-41 (12.2 percent) the previous two games. UF also out-rebounded A&M, one of the nation's best on the glass, 35-34, but got smashed on the offensive boards for a second straight game, this time 13-6, and also surrendered 38 points in the paint, too many of them from guards driving the lane and finishing with relative ease.

"We got blown by way too much," said UF forward Colin Castleton, who finished with 14 points, five rebounds, two assists and four blocks, but like Bonham was bitten by the turnover bug in tying his career high with six. "They got whatever they wanted. We made it look easy for them. We have to take that personally." 

UF had its chances. Despite trailing by 11 at halftime, the Gators stormed out of the locker room with a run of 13-2 to tie the game, nailing a trio of 3s along the way. But the Aggies retook the lead again, going up seven, with Florida again fighting back and again reclaiming the lead, this time at 54-53, only to see A&M score the next five points. 

The Aggies led 62-57 with just over three minutes left, when the Gators reeled off a mini-run of 6-1, with the last four points from Castleton, including a steal and his length-of-the-floor break to a layup in traffic to tie the score at 63 with 1:04 remaining.

Out of a timeout, Taylor (17 points) hit his floater — against little resistance — and the Gators were playing from behind again; like they did for all but 3 minutes and 17 seconds, including their 1-0 lead to start the game. That was because the Aggies came to the arena without their jerseys, causing the start to be pushed back and a delay-of-game technical called. 

"That's something that might happen in my son's CYO game, but not at the SEC level," Golden said. 

UF guard Will Richard (8 points, 5 rebounds) sank a lone free throw before the opening tip. 

"They called it an 'administrative' technical foul," A&M coach Buzz Williams said afterward. 

It apparently fired up his team. 

"To be honest, that kind of got us going," forward Julius Marble (17 points, 6 rebounds) said of his team's quick start. 

The Aggies took an early 6-4 lead just less than three minutes in and next trailed with 5:49 to play in the game, but only for 27 seconds. 

In the end, the Gators had their ball-security and interior defense — two things that had been very good of late — to blame. 

"There's no magic fairy dust that we can sprinkle on guys and say, 'Do this and we're gonna go win,' "Golden said. "No. Defend, rebound, take care of the ball and make some shots. Over the course of the season, we haven't been able to do that at the same time."

Original source can be found here.