“Exactly how we drew it up.”

That’s how Florida Gators basketball head coach Mike White laughingly described the Gators 77-63 win over the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC opener on Saturday night.

It was, by far, the Gators (9-4/1-0) most complete game they have played this season with a balanced offense and stringent defense leading to the win over their SEC East foe.

There are three things, among others, that we can take away from Florida’s weekend performance.

Holy 3 Ball Batman

Coming into the game, Florida had shot 27% from beyond the arc. It was a paltry sum for an area that should have been an area of strength. White has preached shot selection and on Saturday his team found the sweet spots.

“I think that’s probably what allowed us to keep the lead all day because most of the time we had been struggling to make shots but finally tonight we kind of found it,” said forward Justin Leon (2-5/1-2).

Added guard Chris Chiozza (3-8/2-4), “We just try to stay spaced out and let our guards drive and tonight we were just able to make those shots that we get every game that we don’t normally make. We can make them every night; we make them in practice but we just haven’t been able to get them to fall in the games.”

They fell all right; leaving the Gators with a stat line that read 9-22 with five different players chipping in from downtown, lead by KeVaughn Allen who shot 3-6 from deep.

Double Double Toil and Trouble

When Florida is hot on the glass, it’s hard for anyone to beat them as evident against the Dawgs. Center John Egbunu had his third double-double of the season thus far with 12 points and 12 rebounds. As SEC play kicks into high gear, he knows that this is going to need to continue.

“I feel like I should be able to do that every night,” Egbunu admits.

“I should pride myself on that and I feel like whenever I do that I bring a lot to t the team; especially rebounding most importantly, controlling the glass and stopping team from getting second chance shot. I feel like that’s’ really going to help the team…and that’s kind of what I focused on doing tonight and I feel like I did a pretty good job with that.”

Egbunu now joins sophomore forward Devin Robinson as having three double-doubles during the 2015-2016 season and Dorian Finney-Smith has contributed to one as well while nearly missing on another.

Robinson himself could have been on his way to another on Saturday as he already had 13 points in the first half before exiting the game due to injury.

He suffered a chest contusion and received further test and evaluation at Shands hospital but is fine and now day-to-day per the Florida Gators basketball program.

Defense, Defense, Defense

It’s almost boring to talk about at this point because it has been the story of the season and this Florida Gators basketball team for nearly every single one of their 13 games, but alas; defense.

Mike White and company’s motto is “we want our defense to create our offense” and it has really started to do so.

The Gators forced Georgia into as many turnovers as they themselves committed on Saturday but the difference came in Florida outscoring the Dawgs off of those turnovers.

With those easy transitions, guards Kasey Hill, KeVaughn Allen and Chris Chiozza were able to do what they do best; turn on the speed.

While the defense has been present all season, making the most of it has not and that’s what Florida was finally able to do versus Georgia. Chiozza, looking back on games leading up to Georgia and then compared to Saturday’s matchup says the comparison is evident.

“We beat ourselves,” he explains.

“We’re good enough to beat anybody as long as we don’t make mental mistakes and play a full 40 minutes. I know we had a lot of turnovers tonight but we made up for it defensively just like we usually do. We forced them to have just as many turnovers as us if not more and that led us to get some transition looks and easy baskets and that got our offense going.”

This defense created a balanced offense as well, as the Gators finished the night with 27 points from 3 and 20 in the paint. They also outscored Georgia’s bench 24-9.

Extra Tidbits:

Freshman KeVaughn Allen didn’t suffer any drop off after his strong coming out party against FSU.

He posted 18 points on Georgia and went 5-6 from the free throw line; a place the Gators need help.

That help from the charity stripe rubbed off on others though as the Gators finished 24-41 at the line. Kasey Hill was sent there the most and sunk 8 of his 16 free throw shots.

The Florida Gators basketball team will now take this more balanced output and put it to the test on the road versus the Tennessee Volunteers. That game on January 6 is set to tip at 7pm on ESPN2. And as always, follow along on GatorCountry.com for full coverage.