"Something we've been working on." Florida basketball shows off FT improvement in MSU win

Florida basketball coach Todd Golden let out a smile before the start of his postgame press conference.

"OK," Golden started. "Who is going to ask about free throws?"

The Florida Gators entered Wednesday night against Mississippi State still last in the SEC in free throw shooting at 67.8 percent. But the Gators continued their recent improvement at the line in their 79-70 win over Mississippi State, holding off the hard-charging Bulldogs with some clutch free throws down the stretch.

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Florida (13-6, 3-3 SEC) made 10 of its last 11 free throw attempts over the final 1:32, with the lone miss coming by sophomore Riley Kugel on the front end of a one-and-one.

"It's something we've been working on," Florida starting forward Tyrese Samuel said.

The biggest free throws came at the 1:32 mark. After UF's 17-point second half lead dwindled to 6 points, 69-63, freshman Alex Condon was fouled off an inbounds play and went to the line for a one-and-one opportunity. Condon, a 64.6 percent free throw shooter, calmly made both to put UF up 71-63.

After Kugel's miss, Walter Clayton Jr., Condon and Zyon Pullin combined to go 8 for 8 from the line to finish the game off. Florida wound up shooting 85 percent (17-20) from the free throw line and has shot 75 percent or better from the line in three of its last four games.

"Our guards, you know, for most of the year they’ve been pretty good from the line," Golden said. "They haven’t really been an issue for us. So, you know, all part of becoming a more complete team."

FTs lead UF basketball to another important win

The free throws helped Florida salt away another much-needed SEC win. Florida is trying to get back in the SEC race after a 1-3 conference start and has now posted back-to-back wins over Missouri and Mississippi State by an average margin of 10.5 points.

"It was super big," Pullin said. "You know, we're trying to go on a run and string some wins together. It's tough to win the SEC and we need to take every game we can."

A physical Mississippi State squad outrebounded Florida 46-41 and grabbed 22 offensive rebounds. But Florida withstood the charge with another solid defensive effort, holding Mississippi State to 38.7 percent from the field and 24.2 percent (8-33) from 3-point range.

"We’re definitely more connected on the defensive end now then we were two, three weeks ago," Golden said. "I didn’t do a good enough job early in the year on emphasizing that end, we really wanted to focus on getting out and playing fast and scoring a lot, which is fun but at the end of the day you’ve got to get stops to win games."