Gainesville, Fla. - The outmanned Hatters fought hard yet fell to the Gators Sunday afternoon in Gainesville. Stetson dropped to 1-1 and Florida is now 1-0 after winning its season opener 74-46.
The final score was not an indicator of the effort put forth by the visitors who trailed by 19 with 5:29 remaining in the game. The Gators finished the game with a 16-7 run.
Freshman Tyshawn Patterson (Orlando, Fla.) led the Hatters with a new career-high of 19 points after shooting 6-for-11 from the field and a perfect 6-of-6 from the line. Patterson opened his career with 13 points Friday night against Averett.
Also scoring in double figures for Stetson was senior A.J. Smith who finished with 12. Freshman Ridge Graham (Stuart, Fla.) led the team in rebounds with six and Graeme Radford (Victoria, Australia) had a career-high four blocked shots.
After an early layup by Smith and a 3-pointer by Brandon Williams (Miami, Fla.), Stetson had the early lead. They held on until 14:18 when a Ray Shipman (Miramar, Fla.) layup put the Gators up to stay.
Florida took advantage of 52% shooting and went into halftime with a 22 point lead at 39-17. Coming out of the locker room Stetson picked up its game. At 15:09 Williams completed a three-point play with a free throw and the Hatters had reduced the lead to 17 points at 43-26. Florida, however, followed with a seven-point run to go up by 26 and remove all doubt in the eventual outcome.
Stetson's achilles' heel was its shooting. In the end its shooting percentage of 28.6% was about half of what it needed to keep up with the SEC power.
"We need to work some more on our offense", said Stetson Head Coach Derek Waugh. "We spent 75% of our preseason working on defense. "
"The way I look at a game like this is how well we did on the stuff we have been working on in practice. I think we matched their physicality... They are a good team" he added.
The Hatters are a young team that shows tremendous potential and games like this will go a long way towards building on its maturity.
"We are truly a work in progress. We will be a different animal come January and February", said Waugh.
Next up for the Hatters is a trip to the state capitol and a Wednesday game against a strong Florida State team. It will be another step in Stetson's journey towards maturity and trek towards the conference schedule.
Hatter fans can tune into Hatter Vision audio and hear Murray Miller and Harry Arnold call the action from Tallahassee.
