Gators look to regain shooting touch

GAINESVILLE — UF coach Mike White hopes the Gators’ abysmal shooting Wednesday night at South Carolina was a “onetime thing.”

Once was more than enough.

The brick-fest was a flashback to last season, when too many times shooting woes cost UF games.

Those days appeared to be behind White’s squad. But facing one of the nation’s top defensive teams on its home court, No. 19 UF could not buy a basket during a 57-53 loss to the No. 24 Gamecocks.

“I don’t want to take anything away from South Carolina, because they had a lot to do with that,” White said Friday. “I just think we’re a pretty good shooting team. I didn’t anticipate that happening.

“And I certainly don’t anticipate that happening again.”

The Gators (14-4, 5-1 SEC) are going to need to find their range today against Vanderbilt.

The Commodores (8-10, 2-4) are on a four-game skid under first-year coach Bryce Drew, but average 76 points in SEC play and lead the league with an average of 9.8 3-pointers per game.

Their style of play promises to be on the opposite end of the spectrum from what the Gators endured Wednesday.

“It’s going to be a completely different,” White said. “Hopefully, it’s different in the regard that we’re making shots and there’s more of an offensive flow for us.”

The Gators failed to score on their first 12 possessions, and their nation-leading streak of 850 games with at least one 3-pointer ended with an 0-for-17 effort.

UF also finished 15 of 28 from the foul line.

“It was real frustrating,” forward Devin Robinson said.

But Robinson said the Gators also discovered something important. South Carolina could not pull away despite UF’s epic struggles on offense.

“We learned that we could play tough,” Robinson said. “If we play defense like that every game, it’s gonna be tough for us to get beat.”

No one had more to prove to his coach than Robinson. He entered Wednesday with just three offensive rebounds in five SEC games. The 6-foot-8, 200-pound junior finished with five — and 10 total rebounds.