Florida Makes Statement Against Aberdeen-led Kentucky
No. 14 Florida maintained its possession of first place in the SEC by defending home court against No. 25 Kentucky in a 92-83 win Saturday, the Gators’ 10th victory in the last 11 games and fifth straight.
After three years in orange and blue, Denzel Aberdeen stepped in the O’Connell Center in a Wildcat jersey. In the most anticipated return to Gainesville in the NIL era, Gator fans erupted with boos every time Aberdeen brought the ball up the court. After starting out 1-of-6 from the field, Denzel started to find his shot. He had seven points in a Kentucky 10-0 run to cut a Gator 32-17 lead late in the first half. He finished the game with a team-high 19 points, but showed visible frustration late in the second half when the game was out of reach.
“We all knew Zel was going to be aggressive tonight and feed off of the crowd a little bit,” junior forward Alex Condon said. “Give credit to him. He played a solid game. He was aggressive, but I think our guys did a great job making him take tough twos and running him off of the 3-point line.”
Aberdeen left to spend his senior year in Lexington over an NIL dispute. Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee was recruited to take over his spot and he took that matchup personally. Lee came out of the gate with the most confidence he exhibited all season, hitting his first five shots (3 of 3 from deep) for 13 first-half points. Lee didn’t slow down in the second half either, finishing with a game-high 22 points.
“He was fantastic at Georgia. He was great at Vanderbilt,” UF coach Todd Golden said of Lee. “He’s stacked some really good games over the last couple of weeks, and I thought he was fantastic today. Got off to a good start, knocking shots down.
“To your point, he did a really good job of playing with great patience in the paint, playing off two, making good decisions. And he gave us a big lift, him and Urban Klavžar, shooting the ball in the way they did allowed us to win the game we did today.”
Lee’s counterpart Boogie Fland had a rough shooting outing going 2-for-10 from the field. But Fland was not needed with Urban Klavzar providing instant offense off the bench, adding 19 points. With nine minutes left in the second half, he capped a 7-0 run with a corner 3 and layup through contact that extended the Florida lead 72-58.
“It’s the best feeling in the world. Especially when that first shot goes in,” Klavžar said. “You just get a boost in confidence by just shooting it, which leads to more makes.”
Kentucky had to take a timeout, and Klavzar went up to the Rowdy Reptiles to get them roaring. Kentucky tried to make a late surge in the final three minutes, but back-to-back 3s by Klavzar halted those plans.
Thomas Haugh has shown no signs of slowing down offensively, leveraging his height and strength on Otega Oweh to drive downhill. Florida’s leading scorer (17.5 point per game) ended this contest with 17 points and eight rebounds.
Oweh (17.1 points per contest) entered with five straight games of 20-plus points. Haugh welcomed the potential SEC player of the year assignment, limiting him to 13 points on 4-14 shooting.
Trailing 43-34, Kentucky (17-8, 8-4 SEC) started the second half on a 7-0 run, but Florida responded to early punches with Lee’s fourth straight 3 and a Micah Handlogten spoon-fed lob from Haugh. Florida was able to mitigate any Kentucky run with burst of its own, maintaining a tight grasp of the game despite Kentucky doing its best to keep its deficit within two possessions.
Even with looking discombobulated offensively and dealing with foul trouble, Rueben Chinyelu still managed to post a double double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. He was all over the offensive glass in the second half, earning free throws and open layups via offensive putbacks.
Alex Condon added a 13-point, 11-rebound double double, while also finding open teammates when he was doubled in the paint. Condon made winning plays despite not directly being involved in the statsheet.
“People want to poke at things about our team, or about our personnel, when we’re not doing everything perfectly, but you look at the big picture and how many guys in America would you trade Alex Condon for,” Golden said. “I can’t think of any at that spot. And he’s been a huge winner for us and the double-double, huge, but it’s his defense, it’s his winning plays. It’s his effort that’s unmatched and it’s why he’s such a great player.”
Up Next
Florida (19-6, 10-2) stays home to face South Carolina (11-13, 2-9) at 7 p..m. Tuesday (SEC Network, 103.7-FM).
Category: College Basketball, Feature Sports News, Gators Men's Basketball
