The Florida Gators improved to 2-1 on the season following their 89-68 victory over Florida A&M on Tuesday night. While a 21-point victory seems significant, it didn’t really feel that way throughout the entirety of the contest.
“It will be a tricky one to evaluate,” Head Coach Todd Golden said postgame. “Obviously, we won by 21. Never going to be too upset about a 20-point win, but, with that being said, obviously I think there’s a lot of areas we could have played better.”
The start of the contest was difficult to evaluate. The Gators dominated the offensive glass and got plenty of looks inside the paint but couldn’t finish around the rim, leading to a sluggish start. Florida started just 1-10 from the field.
“The start was a little fluky I thought,” Golden said. “We got some good close looks and didn’t put it in, but we were aggressive on the glass early and tried to set the tone that way.”
“You know I thought we just weren’t putting balls in around the rim, ‘cause we were getting some good second-chance opportunities, and we just weren’t finishing,” Golden said on the early looks. “A little bit of maybe a hangover from Friday night, just trying to get that loss out of our system.”
The Gators out rebounded FAMU 46-31 including 21-14 on the offensive glass.
The lack of ball movement hurt the Gators in the first half and led them to a 38.2% from the field in the first 20 minutes of play. The Gators shot 58.6% after halftime.
“We didn’t share it well enough in the first half. I thought the ball was a little sticky,” Golden said. “That’s been something that’s been a really big plus of this group in the previous games and scrimmages that we’ve had. We’ve been able to move it and get a lot of assists. In the first half, I think we only had two or three assists, so they bothered us that way and we didn’t do a good enough job of attacking it. The second half was much better. We had ten assists. I thought we played better offensively. There were moments where I thought we could kind of break away, we never did. Credit to them, they hit some threes in the second half that kept them in it a little bit. With that being said, it’s still a 21-point win.”
Florida was led by a pair of guards in Walter Clayton and Will Richard, who combined for 38 points on 50% shooting.
“The thing about this team that is going to determine how good we can be is just continuing to understand that it is probably going to be somebody else every other night depending upon who we are going up against and what they are trying to take away,” Golden said postgame. “Tonight was Will [Richard]’s night. He played really well. Took advantage of his opportunities. Made his free throws.”
“I thought Walt [Clayton Jr.] had a really good game,” Golden added. “I thought he had a really good second half. 18 points, 5 assists and only one turnover. I thought his floor game was really good.”
Freshmen Forward Alex Condon served as the offensive spark plug tonight, recording 17 points on an efficient 6-8 from the floor in just 17 minutes of play. Condon was able to knock down a pair of three pointers on three attempts. Condon also added two blocks, two assists, and six rebounds to the stat sheet.
“It’s always a good start when you hit a few threes,” Condon said on his performance tonight. “I feel like I wasn’t me against Virginia – I tried to force too much. But when I play confident, because I know I’ve done the work, I feel like I play a lot better, and I think that showed tonight.”
Sophomore guard Denzel Aberdeen set his career high in points with 12 on 5-10 shooting against FAMU.
“I thought he played pretty well,” Golden said. “Denzel’s in that tough role of, obviously, being one of those guards off the bench and trying to see what’s going on out there to determine if he’s going to be really aggressive trying to score, is he going to be trying to get people involved. Always want him to be really good defensively. But, he came in and made some baskets. I think 12 is a career high for him. He’s maturing and playing pretty well right now.”
UP NEXT
The Gators are set to take on FSU (2-0) inside the O’Connell Center on Friday at 7:00 PM EST. Florida will return transfer guard Zyon Pullin following his three game suspension.
“It’s just adding another really, really good talented, mature veteran player in the mix,” Golden said on what Pullin brings to the table. “You know, a point guard, a guy that can really organize and get everybody on the same page, and I think Walt’s done a really nice job, you know, with what we’ve asked him to do in a short period of time, but Zyon coming back will make everybody on our team better. I think that’s the easiest way to explain it. Having a guy who can be a floor general out there, a guy that’s really good on-ball defender, a guy that’s won 20 games in all four years in college. A guy that just really understands winning, and will be a welcome addition for us.”
“It’s going to mean a lot,” Forward Will Richard said on the return of Pullin. “Zyon can do so many different things, he can score, he can facilitate. He’s going to bring a whole different element to our team, and we are definitely going to be glad to have him with us out there.”
NOTEABLES
- Will Richard led the Gators in scoring for the second straight game, totaling 20 points on 6-for-12 shooting with a pair of 3-pointers and a 6-for-7 night from the free throw line. It marks his second 20-point game as a Gator (24 at Georgia, 2/28/23).
- Walter Clayton added a season-best 18 points to go with five assists and two steals vs. just one turnover.
- Alex Condon scored 16 of his career-best 17 points in the second half, going 6-for-8 from the floor, 2-for-3 from 3-point range and 3-for-4 from the charity stripe.
- Denzel Aberdeen scored 12 points to double his previous career high (6 vs. UCF, 3/15/23).
- The Gators held a +15 rebounding edge (46-31), giving the Gators back-to-back double-figure rebounding advantages (+17 vs. Virginia) for the first time under Todd Golden.