Florida Controls Texas A&M to Move Alone Atop SEC Standings
There’s a new squad atop the SEC standings.
The Gators took the conference lead after Saturday’s rout of the Aggies in College Station. It’s the first time since 2014 that Florida holds sole possession of first place in the SEC.
No. 17 Florida shut the door on Texas A&M (17-6, 7-3 SEC) during an 86-67 win in what was a highly anticipated matchup on both sides. The Gators (17-6, 8-2 SEC) came into the contest riding a three-game road win streak, while the Aggies were fresh off a heartbreaking loss in Tuscaloosa.
Although, the first half didn’t go completely to plan for Texas A&M. The home team added just three points and shot 1-for-27 in the game’s opening 12 minutes.
Despite the Aggies’ abysmal opening-frame shooting performance, the Gators failed to capitalize. Urban Klavzar’s nine points led Florida to just an 11-point margin in that span.
Florida’s dominant size was clearly in the back of the Aggies’ minds. The Gators’ backcourt has been at the forefront of the reigning national champions’ season. Juniors Rueben Chinyelu, Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon combined for five blocks in the first 20 minutes of play. The trio, paired with senior Micah Handlogten, tallied 36 points in the victory.
Chinyelu and Haugh have each racked up numerous accolades during Florida’s six-day break. The latter was named to the Julius Erving Award Midseason Top 10 list on Wednesday.
Chinyelu, a 6-foot-10 center, added Naismith Player of the Week to his resume, just five days before joining two household names in the Florida record books.
The Nigeria native joined Joakim Noah and Al Horford as the only Gators this century to post back-to-back seasons with more than 250 rebounds. Chinyelu came out of the win with his seventh double-double in eight games.
Haugh notched his 10th 20-point showing this season. The third-year forward picked up all but one of his 22 points in the second half.
“Great game plan,” Haugh said. “I think we executed it to perfection and were able to go out there and do what the coaches want us to do.”
Texas A&M entered the contest having played 22 games of “Bucky Ball.” The Aggies’ first-year coach Bucky McMillan introduced the concept as the team exemplifies high-tempo, 3-pointer driven offense and a stifling full-court defense.
The aggressive defensive style was in full effect Saturday, for about 15 minutes, with Marcus Hill and Zach Clemence working as two key pieces of Texas A&M’s hardcore press. The two nearly forced the Gators into numerous 10-second violations when taking the ball down the court prior to Todd Golden’s second-half adjustments.
“Our ability to not only take care of the ball, but really advance it and attack in transition led to a lot of runouts and dunks for us in the second half,” Golden said. “And I thought our guys did a really good job of playing fast, but not in a hurry.”
Florida’s offense fired on all cylinders Saturday coming out of the break. The Gators shot 48.7% from the field and tallied 32 points in the paint in the final frame to close out the win.
“We took care of the ball well enough in the first half, but we really challenged our guys to do a better job rebounding in the second half, and we did that,” Golden said.
The Aggies entered the game forcing 14.8 turnovers per game and scoring 92 points per game while playing McMillan’s revamped approach. However, Florida committed just nine turnovers and the Aggies found themselves at their lowest scoring total since its 63-point outing on Nov. 9.
Florida returns to action Wednesday in Athens, Georgia, at the Stegeman Coliseum at 7 p.m. Florida looks for its 15th victory in its last 16 meetings with the Bulldogs.
Category: Feature Sports News, Gators Men's Basketball
