Shorthanded Gators earn Super Sized win over Tennessee

Playing without arguably their three best players the Florida Gators shocked the No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers 75-49 at home.

The 26-point win ties the largest winning margin in the Mike White era in Gainesville.

"I think everybody just came ready to play," Noah Locke said after the game. "We were focused at shoot-around, focused the last two days."

The Gators have been without Scottie Lewis (health and safety protocol) for the last three games and were without big man Colin Castleton (ankle). Couple that with missing pre-season First Team-All SEC player Keyontae Johnson and the Gators looked to be fighting an uphill battle.

"You're going to get more minutes tonight, what are you going to do with them," White challenged his team before the game. "Nobody shied away from it. Everybody accepted it. "

That quickly showed not to be the case Tuesday night. Florida came out of the game hot, playing a physical, swarming style of defense that kept the Vols out of rhythm. In the first half, Tennessee shot just 9-of-32 (28.1%). Despite an advantage of 10 free throws to just four for the Gators, Florida built a 38-27 lead at the break.

"We showed that we could compete with any team," Locke added.

The Gators continued building and playing a suffocating brand of defense, building a lead all the way up to 26 points in the second half. It was a full team effort to earn the win on Tuesday. Florida had four players score in double-digits, led by Noah Locke's 14. Florida also outscored Tennessee 42-22 in the paint, without their leading rebounder and post player in Castleton.

"To me, that's the most productive our pressure has been this year without fouling," head coach Mike White said.

Florida will travel to Athens to take on Georgia Saturday at 2 pm.