GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- It was just what the doctor ordered for the Florida basketball team.

The Gators came out with the energy they lacked against Missouri, beating Ole Miss 71-55 to secure its third win in the SEC and secure Mike White's 100th win as the Florida coach.

"It means a lot [to get this one for White]," said Keyontae Johnson. "It just shows what type of a coach he is. I am thankful to be here."

"Crazy. I never would have imagined," said White. "Pretty cool. I've had a lot of really good players. I'm blessed to have a terrific job and hopefully, we win a lot more.

"I didn't create any culture here. We try to just recreate a semblance of Billy's culture."

"I think he is definitely doing pretty good," said Kerry Blackshear. "I'm just excited to be part of what he is building."

In our Sunday 3-2-1 column, we made it a point to highlight Keyontae Johnson's importance to the side, and he demonstrated it on Tuesday night.

Johnson finished the game with 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting, adding six rebounds to the stat sheet.

"I think he means the world to our team," said senior Blackshear about Johnson. "Not just scoring, the defensive impact that he has. He is one of the most athletic dudes in the SEC, if not the country. He gives us a lot on both ends."

Florida came out to a quick 11-point lead, however, as one has come to begrudgingly expect, UF did have a stumble midway through the second half. The Rebels managed to go on a 16-3 run to take the lead over the Gators.

"We preached great shot, get a stop," White said. "Those are the things we can control. ... I thought (Ole Miss) responded to our start really well."

However, this time White's team did not let things spiral out of control.

The difference? Practice was different this week.

"Few practices we had we just focused on defense," said Johnson. "Coach White was showing us our ranking on defense in the SEC and I think the team just took that personally. We wanted to show that we could guard.

"Everybody was just locked in. Everybody just learned from that [Missouri] game," added Johnson. "We just learned that our defense wasn't good, rotation. We did a lot of drills so we can rotate and stuff. It showed today since we got a lot of stops."

UF managed to connect on ten consecutive field goals to end the half to secure the comfortable halftime lead. There was no coming back for the visitors.

The Gators shot 54% from the floor and 23.1% from three-point range in the win over Ole Miss. In addition to Johnson, point guard Andrew Nembhard 10) and Kerry Blackshear (13) rounded out the double-digit scorers for Florida.

"We were just moving the ball a lot," said Johnson about the offense. "Shooting with confidence basically."

"We thought that we kept those guys in check defensively we would have a chance to beat them," said Blackshear. "I think we delivered because of the energy we provided on defense."

Defensively, the Gators held the Rebels to 18-of-45 (40%) shooting 18.8% from three-point range - tightening things up in the second period with the visitors only shooting 29.2% in the period.

This is not a time for White's men to let success get to their heads, however. The Gators need to shift their focus quickly to Auburn on Saturday. The Tigers are currently ranked fourth in the country and will provide quite the challenge for the home side.

"It's a good win. We've just got to focus on the next," Johnson said. "Coach White, we'll come back Thursday and everybody will be locked in."