GAINESVILLE, Fla. _ Missouri beat Florida head-to-head Wednesday in the recruiting battle for Eastern Arizona College defensive tackle Malik Young.
The Gators got revenge Thursday at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center by pummeling the Tigers 93-54 before a national audience on ESPN2.
Things went south in a hurry, too.
No. 24 Florida (17-5, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) scored on its first nine possessions in building an 18-3 lead during the opening 5 { minutes.
Missouri (5-16, 0-9 SEC) would trail by as many as 31 points in the first half, which ended with second-year coach Michael White's squad in front 48-20.
The Tigers finished with more first-half fouls (11) than field goals made (seven), while shooting a mere 22.6 percent from the field.
The Gators, who won the first-half rebounding battle 31-13 and were 13 of 16 at the free-throw line before halftime, never led by fewer than 27 in the second half.
Mizzou matched the longest losing streak in the program's 111-year history at 13 straight games with the loss, which also was the fifth by at least 30 points in coach Kim Anderson's three-year tenure.
The Tigers set the dubious record two years during Anderson's first season as head coach.
The loss also was MU's 14th straight in SEC play, which establishes a new record for the longest conference slide.
The Tigers also extended program records for the longest road losing streak (31) and longest road losing streak in conference (28).
Midway through the first half, the only remaining drama was if Florida would cover the gargantuan 22 { point spread in Las Vegas.
During the first half, former Missouri guard Tramaine Isabell, who transferred to Drexel last spring, rubbed salt in the wound with a series of tweets.
The first taking exception to a previous tweet from August by a Tigers staffer from August and the second expounded on his first tweet.
