The running theme that led to the Florida Gators (2-0) victory in their matchup against the North Carolina A&T Aggies (0-2) was “unselfish” play. On Monday night in Gainesville, Florida the home team dominated, beating out the Aggies 104-54.
Brandone Francis-Ramirez credited the impressive ball play to the team’s decision to play the game unselfishly saying, “No one was out there playing for themselves, we’ve really come together to play as a team.” Mike White echoed Francis-Ramirez saying, “I thought we came out with a lot of energy and that throughout the 40 minutes we played unselfishly even with the big lead in the second half.”
This unselfish attitude resulted in six Gators scoring in double-digits, when just three days against Navy there was only one – Devin Robinson. DeVon Walker and Devin Robinson both tallied up 15, Dorian Finney-Smith had 14, John Egbunu had 13, Chris Chiozza had 11 and Brandone Francis-Ramirez had 10.
Florida made better decisions with the basketball, resulting in a huge improvement in taking shots from behind the arc. They also handled the basketball better, giving up 13 turnovers in comparison to last week’s 19 at Navy.
The Gators also stepped up their shots from the free throw line. They went 15-23 from the charity stripe, improving over ten percent to 65.2% from last week’s 52.6%. Mike White had said repeatedly that this would be the type of team to grow during the season, and their development after one game has already been noteworthy.
The tempo on both the defense and the offense was quick – allowing for the Gators to get 20 offensive rebounds and 31 defensive rebounds. However, they have been playing teams that they easily outman and will have new challenges as they face more difficult teams the remainder of the season.
On Saturday the Gators will be heading to Uncasville, Connecticut where they will face St. Joseph’s (2-0) in the first round game of the Hall of Fame Tipoff at 2:30 p.m. Depending on the outcome of the game, Florida will either matchup with Old Dominion (1-0) or No. 21 ranked Purdue (2-9) on Sunday at noon or 5:30 p.m.
Standout stats:
– Doe-Doe logged the second consecutive double double in a game for the Gators with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
– This is the first time since 2009 where the Gators have logged over 100 points.
– Six different players scored in double-digits.
– Five different players completed shots from downtown.