The Florida Gators Men’s basketball team improved to 15-1 (2-1 SEC) after a 71-63 road victory over Arkansas on Saturday evening. Alijah Martin’s 14 points and Alex Condon’s 12-point, 10-rebound double-double powered the Gators to the road win over Arkansas in the teams’ only regular season meeting. Condon became the first Gator this season to post back-to-back double-doubles, coming off 12 points and 12 rebounds in Tuesday’s win vs. Tennessee.
Gators’ point guard Walter Clayton extended his streak to 39 consecutive games with at least one 3-point field goal made, matching Lee Humphrey for the second-longest such streak in Florida history behind Michael Frazier II (41).
Florida scored 70+ points for the 17th straight game, the second-longest such streak in program history (26, 12/17/1976 through 12/7/1977).
Head coach Todd Golden, sophomore forward Alex Condon, and senior guard Will Richard met with the media postgame to break down the victory.
“Huge win. Huge win for us. I think we were fighting a little bit of human nature after Tuesday night – great win for us, and we were a little fatigued both emotionally and physically. I was a little worried about how we would be able to respond against a team that was awfully hungry and competitive. Early on, obviously we struggled a little bit, but our guys were pretty resilient. I thought we fought. We weren’t perfect, but we competed well enough to win. We rebounded when we needed to. I thought we did a great job protecting the rim, which was a huge part of our scout today and stepped up and knocked down some big shots. Alijah [Martin] hit that big three in the second half, then Condo’s [Alex Condon] pop-three, in my opinion, iced the game. I think that was 1:23 left to get us up 12. We had multiple really good efforts. One guy I want to highlight is Sam Alexis. I thought he stepped up remarkably tonight, gave us great minutes off the bench to give us six [points] and seven [rebounds] and play a really solid game was huge for us.”
On the halftime message…
“We didn’t handle their pressure very well, but I thought we left some points out there behind the 3-point line. We were 3-for-16 in the first half from three. I thought we got some really good looks that we didn’t knock down. As we talked at half, again, it was continue to take care of the ball. We had two swing plays – pick-sixes that led to layups for them. But we thought if we just stayed the course that we’d be all right, and we stepped up and obviously scored 43 in the second half, so we were much better that way.”
On Sam Alexis stepping up and should feel good about himself after this performance…
“As he should. We talked about if we’re going to reach our goals of being an elite team and playing deep into March, we need different guys to step up on different nights. He had an extended opportunity tonight with all the foul trouble we were playing through. To his credit, there was no drop-off when he was in the game. This was the first time where we’ve played a really good opponent in a big game where I thought he looked like he felt comfortable. He did everything we asked him to do. I thought he was super aggressive getting 50-50 rebounds. I thought he did a great job initiating our offense out of the elbow. I told him after the game, if we continue to get him playing better and better, it’s obviously going to make us pretty tough.”
Sophomore F/C Alex Condon
On weathering a slow start…
“We came out and started the game a bit slow. The energy we came out with in the second half, finding open guys and getting to the free throw line, it was a lot better in the second half than the first.”
Senior G Will Richard
On playing in a game with a lot of whistles…
“You have to read the game, see how refs are calling it, then pick your spots. There were parts during the game they were calling stuff and parts of the game when they weren’t, so you just have to play smart.”