No. 16 Florida Keeps Dominant Streak Alive in Home Win Against LSU
The 16th-ranked Gators hosted the LSU Tigers with a lot on the line — 16 consecutive home wins and coach Todd Golden’s 90th victory, which would set a program record for most wins through a coach’s first four seasons leading Florida.
Florida (14-5, 5-1 SEC) accomplished both feats with a 79-61 win Tuesday against LSU (13-6, 1-5) in front of 10,593 fans at the O’Connell Center.
“This is a really systematic win for our program,” Golden said of the fifth consecutive win. “We defended, we rebounded and we took care of the ball.”
After being named Southeastern Conference Player of the Week for the first time in his career Monday, junior center Rueben Chinyelu tied his season high with 21 rebounds and added 15 points.
Chinyelu became the first Gator to record a fourth double-double in a row since David Lee accomplished the feat in 2005 and is the third player in school history with two 20-plus rebound games on the season.
“If he gets his hand on a rebound, you’re not taking it away,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said.
Urban Klavzar was a key player off the bench for the Gators. Klavzar knocked down a career-high five 3-pointers in leading the Gators with 18 points.
“It’s been a huge part of why we’ve been better over the last couple weeks,” Golden said. “I think our bench has given us a big lift.”
Boogie Fland remained confident for the Gators following his haircut game, when he scored 23 against Tennessee. Fland finished with 10 points and four assists, adding a new “secret sauce”: popcorn. With 17 minutes remaining in the second half, Fland dove for the ball heading out of bounce and ate popcorn from a fan court side.
The Tigers’ leading scorer this season, Dedan Thomas Jr., returned for the first time in five games and missed his first six shots. Thomas went 1-8 with two points.
LSU’s second-leading scorer on the season, Max Mackinnon, averages 15 points per game but finished with 10 points, one rebound and one assist Tuesday.
The first half started off slow for both teams.
The Tigers shot 40% from the field, 60% from 3 and 50% from the foul line. Florida, on the other hand, shot 40%, 28% and 50%.
The difference that gave the Gators the lead came in the smaller statistical categories. The Gators protected the ball and only committed two turnovers to the Tigers’ seven. Off of those turnovers, Florida scored 11 points. In the paint, the Gators dominated 20-12, and on second-chance points they outscored the Tigers 12-2. Florida also dominated fast-break points 8-0 and bench points 13-4.
Florida spread the wealth in the first half with eight players scoring. Thomas Haugh led the way for the Gators with eight points. Haugh started off slow and was quiet for most of the game until he knocked down a 3-pointer as time expired to go into halftime with a 38-26 lead.
The Gators came out strong in the second half with a steal from Fland who took the ball the distance of the court for his second breakaway dunk of the evening. The Florida reserves jumped out of their chairs as the O’Connell Center crowd erupted.
The Gators started the second half on a 6-0 run in the first 50 seconds. Chinyelu continued to work in the paint, making the LSU forwards struggle to keep him off the offensive boards.
The climax of the second half came when Mike Nwoko was called for a flagrant foul, giving Florida two free throws and the ball. Off the inbound, Klavzar knocked down a 3 from the corner while he was fouled. After missing the foul shot, Chinyelu grabbed the offensive rebound through three LSU players and put the ball up for an and-1.
Florida had a seven-point possession and there was no stopping it after that.
Takeaways from matchup
Chinyelu is on a roll and is turning into quite the force for the Gators. He kept the Tigers working as he battled for every rebound.
Florida outrebounded LSU, 50-30, and had 24 offensive rebounds to the Tigers seven. Eleven of those offensive rebounds came from Chinyelu.
It almost felt like deja vu when Nwoko was called for the flagrant 1 on Chinyelu going up for the rebound. When the Gators welcomed Georgia into the O’Connell Center on Jan. 6, forward Somto Cyril was ejected for throwing a forearm at Chinyelu.
“He’s difficult to officiate, he gets fouled on every play,” Golden said.
Florida fans can sleep soundly knowing that the Gators can still win by 20 points without big games from Haugh or Alex Condon.
Haugh, who leads the Gators in scoring with 17.4 points per game, went 2-11 from the field with seven points. Condon added in 10 points.
“It shows the depth that we have, shows the competitiveness that we have, we don’t have to play our best basketball to have a 20-point game. Imagine when we play our best basketball what that will look like,” Fland said. “We still haven’t hit our peak yet. We have more room to grow.”
The defensive energy from the Gators was heightened on the 3-point line. Florida held Mackinnon to just one 3-pointer while limiting LSU to just 27% shooting from beyond the arc.
“I don’t think Florida gets enough credit on the defensive side of the ball,” McMahon said. “Their physicality, their ability to run us off the 3-point line and funnel us into the paint where all of that shot blocking is, made it really difficult on us tonight.”
A large part of this defensive energy came from Isaiah Brown, who has been a consistent defender off the bench for the Gators.
Klavzar has slowly become an “it” player for Florida. Klavzar was the leading scorer and played 24 minutes of the game off the bench which was more than starter Xaivian Lee. Lee played just 20 minutes with seven points and three turnovers.
“He’s settled into the role that we hoped he would this year, just being that little spark plug on the bench, being able to just come in and make shots, give a little offensive lift,” Golden said.
The Gators next host the Auburn Tigers (12-7, 3-3) at 4 p.m. Saturday (ESPN, 103.7-FM/98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF).
Category: Basketball, College Basketball, Feature Sports News, Gainesville, Gators Men's Basketball, NCAA, SEC
