For thirteen minutes, Cal was with Florida. After the under eight timeout with 7:43 left, Cal trailed 19-17. Florida would make six of their next eight shots, including four threes, while Cal struggled with Florida's press. The Gators would go on a 27-10 tear to end the half, giving the Gators a 19 point halftime lead that they would not relinquish in an 80-60 defeat in their Fort Myers Classic opener. Jordan Shepherd led the Bears with 15 points, while Lars Thiemann had 8 points in his most action on the year.

"Really was a very poor end to the first half for us," Cal head coach Mark Fox said, "we started the game very decently but the last eight minutes of the first half, we couldn't keep them off the foul line, we went to a zone and they immediately hit a couple threes. Defensively we didn't finish the first half well and the dam broke on us."

Cal would keep things even early, thanks to some early efforts from Lars Thiemann. The German center had a couple putbacks off Cal misses to give the Bears an early 10-9 lead, with Andre Kelly and Jalen Celestine putting in a couple shots to give the Bears a 15-13 lead.

That would be the last lead Cal had in the contest as Florida would ride a number of free throws to a lead, with Makale Foreman fouling Tyree Appleby on a 3, then Brandon McKissic and Philandrous Fleming would add three more free throws.

With those free throws giving Florida time to set of the press, Cal struggled to get a shot off at all, getting sped up and heading to the five minute mark down 26-21 after a Grant Anticevich jumper. Then the run came, with a 10-3 run by Florida, then another to take it to the half. Cal struggled to keep Florida's quick guards, namely Appleby, in front of them, as the Gators made 14-15 free throws in the first frame. Fox complimented Florida's help defense, which denied Andre Kelly the touches he's gotten inside in the past.

"Their quickness in the halfcourt (showed) with Andre in the roll and recover," Fox said. "They have great recovery speed in the halfcourt, there wasn't a lot of clean looks."

It would take the Bears a while to get going in the second half as well, as they wouldn't have a field goal until two and a half minutes into the half, where Shepherd knocked down a floater in the lane, ending a seven and a half field goal free stretch for the Bears. By that point, Cal trailed 53-30, and wouldn't cut it any closer than the 19 point halftime deficit.

Cal did get some energetic minutes from Sam Alajiki, who threw down a two handed dunk of a Shepherd feed, but Appleby blazed right back with a layup, and another Shepherd layup was answered by a Florida 3. Thiemann would give the Bears some good minutes on the interior with a nice layup, but every make was followed by a Florida basket. The Bears also played relatively sloppy ball throughout, finishing with 18 total turnovers.

After a final free throw by Thiemann, Cal would fall 80-60 in a game they were in early, but fell apart in after 15 minutes of game time.

"We need to look hard at this game, I've been a little disappointed in some details of our approach," Fox said, "we've got to learn why this happened, why we have certain fouls. We got a little rattled in the second half after one of our missed free throws, where it was one of the young guys who wasn't matched up on the other end. We need to see some of the consequences of these mistakes in order to grow, because these really good teams, they make you pay for every mistake and Florida did tonight."

The Bears will face Seton Hall in the 3rd place game at 3 PM PDT Wednesday.

- Cal struggled in just about every part of the game, not finding opportunities against Florida's press, and while the Bears want to play slow, that approach often led to late in the clock shots and a couple of shot clock violations during Florida's 1st half run

- With the day gap between tournament games, Cal has to figure out their fouling situation, as the Bears, who don't foul too much as a whole, committed far too many shooting fouls against a team that made it difficult to string baskets together

- Andre Kelly finished with 9 points and 4 rebounds as he was continually denied by the Florida defense, and the Bears have to find more ways for Kelly to touch the ball. Four field goal attempts isn't going to cut it.

- Cal also saw Makale Foreman have a rough day, as Foreman missed a couple open shots that he'll usually knock down, as the grad transfer from Stony Brook scored only on free throws after a technical foul, while also getting caught behind a couple of screens to give Florida open looks.