Florida Bounces Back for Largest SEC Road Win
South Carolina discovered on Wednesday night that playing Florida after a Gator home loss is scary.
No. 19 Gators were all smiles as they defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia, 95-48, the largest SEC road win in Florida history.
Florida was coming off a disappointing 76-67 loss to Auburn at home where the Gators (15-6, 6-2 SEC) just couldn’t get anything to click. They shot a mere 37% from the field Saturday.
South Carolina (11-10, 2-6) saw a completely different team at Colonial Life Arena. Florida was firing on all cylinders by shooting 62% from the field with 54 points in the paint.
“It was a speed bump, but every speed bump in the SEC is about learning. We lost to Georgia last year and learned from that one and won a national championship,” Thomas Haugh said. “We’re going to keep learning from that Auburn game and keep pushing forward.”
It was an unselfish win, as the Gators finished the game with 28 assists. This was the most assists in SEC play over the past 30 seasons. Of the 13 players who saw the court, 11 scored for the Gators, highlighting the team effort behind the win. Every cut was clean, every pass was calculated and even Olivier Rioux saw the court. It was the perfect bounce-back game for Florida.
“Twenty-eight assists is crazy. That just shows how unselfish this team is,” Haugh said.
Haugh led the Gators with 18 points, going 3-for-5 from behind the arc. Reuben Chinyelu, the reigning USBWA Oscar Robertson National Player of the Weekm, added 14 points, going a perfect 7-for-7 from the field and notching his 12th double-double of the season.
Eli Ellis led South Carolina with 13 points, six of which came from the foul line. The Gamecocks shot an abysmal 15% from 3 and 26% from the field. Meechie Johnson has been leading South Carolina by averaging 23 points in the last four games. In Wednesday’s game, he was held to just 10.
It was all Florida from the tip.
Urban Klavzar knocked down two early triples in 25 seconds to put the Gators up 18-8 early and it was just up from there. Florida’s 15-0 first-half run was its largest in SEC play this season.
“We weren’t scoring it well, but we kind of broke through around the 10-minute mark in the first half and never looked back. One of our best defensive and rebounding efforts combined all year,” UF coach Todd Golden said. “We just did a really good job valuing the basketball and finding our teammates.”
The first half consisted of poetry in motion for the Gators. Chinyelu was smooth at the rim, Alex Condon was patient as he blocked South Carolina players who dared to come in the paint and the Gators off-the-ball movement was pristine.
Early in the first half, the Gators had nine made field goals on eight assists. It was a complete unselfish showing.
The first half ended with Xaivian Lee jumping the passing lane for a steal and a layup to extend the Gators’ lead to 30.
Florida went into halftime up 48-20 with eight players on the board and zero points from South Carolina leading scorer.
The second half looked about the exact same as Boogie Fland was on the board first with a 3-pointer.
Kobe Knox dribbled the ball off his foot to start the second half, looking down at his hands in frustration — a moment that characterized the rest of the night for the Gamecocks.
Johnson scored his first point five minutes into the second half, but the Gators responded pretty quickly with two straight 3-pointers from Haugh and Klavzar.
It was that kind of night for the Gators, with Micah Handlogten, a 35% free-throw shooter, hitting two straight foul shots as the bench erupted.
With five minutes to play, the UF fans in the crowd erupted into chants of “Ollie, Ollie, Ollie” for 7-foot-9 Olivier Rioux. Golden answered moments later, inserting Rioux with two minutes remaining.
Takeaways
Entering the game, eyes were on Florida’s shooting, defending and rebounding after Auburn’s struggles. The Gators dominated in every category.
Florida must’ve worked on its foul shooting in practice since Saturday. Against Auburn, Florida shot just 59% from the foul line. In Columbia, the Gators increased that percentage to 71%.
Klavzar is still on a roll averaging 9.7 points for the Gators and scoring in double figures the last three games. The Slovenia native went 3-for-6 from 3 with 11 points in the win.
Lee is still having his shooting struggles going 0-4 from 3. However, for Gator fans a promising statistic are nine assists from Lee. Even through his struggles, he found other ways to help his team win.
Condon looked timid in the loss to Auburn and size advantage against South Carolina made it an opportunity for Condon to regain his confidence. Condon flirted with a triple-double putting up 10 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. He made it a priority to provide opportunities for his teammates when his offensive game has been struggling.
“It definitely was a priority for me to come out and have a good game today and come out with a different level of energy and lead the boys a little bit. That was a big thing for me,” Condon said.
Fland also added six assists of his own making it the first time that three Gators dished six or more assists since 2000.
Another takeaway was Florida’s interior passing. On multiple instances, the Gators ran elite cuts off the ball for open drives to the basket. With each cut, the passer was ready with a perfect pass. The Gators looked together as a team on all fronts.
Florida heads back to Gainesville to host No. 23 Alabama (14-6, 4-3) on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. on ESPN 98.1-FM, 103.7-FM/850-AM WRUF and at 1 p.m. on ABC.
Category: Basketball, College Basketball, Feature Sports News, Gators Men's Basketball
