Florida vs. South Carolina takeaways: No. 19 Gators bounce back, eviscerate Gamecocks on road

Basketball

0

Image Credit: Maddie Washburn, UAA

It was never close Wednesday night in Columbia, South Carolina, as the No. 19 Florida Gators exorcised the demons from their tough home loss to Auburn with a 95-48 evisceration of the South Carolina Gamecocks. The 47-point victory marked UF’s largest ever against an SEC program in a road game and largest in any conference game since 1993.

The Gators led by double digits over the first quarter of the game and never looked back, piling it on in the first half and cruising to victory over the latter 20 minutes. They won the first half by 28 points and the second half by 19 points for the most dominant win of head coach Todd Golden’s career.

Let’s take a look at what went down with some Fastbreak Takeaways as UF improved to 15-6 (6-2 SEC).

It was over when … senior guard Xaivian Lee gobbled up a loose ball, running to the hoop for an uncontested layup to push Florida ahead by 30 points with 35 seconds remaining … in the first half. The Gators hit 11 of 12 shots as part of an extended 28-7 scoring stretch that ballooned the lead to a point from which the Gamecocks could not recover. Junior G Urban Klavžar drained consecutive 3-pointers from the corner earlier in the period to create a 10-point margin, and UF continued capitalising from there. Florida’s final margin of 47 points was achieved on the back of consecutive triples from freshman guards Alex Lloyd and CJ Ingram.

Exceptional efforts: Junior forward Thomas Haugh led a dominant triumvirate in the first half, scoring 15 of his 18 points in the game’s opening 20 minutes. He finished 7 of 12 from the field and 3 of 5 from downtown with three rebounds. Junior center Rueben Chinyelu notched his 12th double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while junior F/C Alex Condon filled up the stat sheet, coming close to a triple-double with 10 points, nine boards and eight dimes. Lee registered a season-high nine dimes, while Klavžar scored 11 points and sophomore G Boogie Fland hit 4 of 5 shots for 10 points with six assists and four boards.

Odds & ends: Florida improved to 51-29 all-time against South Carolina, 4-1 under Golden and 26-16 in Columbia … the Gators are now 13-1 when leading at halftime, 15-1 when leading with 5 minutes left, 15-4 when outrebounding the opposition, 10-1 when shooting 45% or better from the field, 13-0 when outshooting the opposition, 1-0 when shooting better than 40% from 3-point rnage, 7-1 when outshooting its opposition from 3-point range, 9-2 when winning the bench scoring battle, 14-2 when 4+ players score in double figures and 8-0 when 5+ players score in double figures

What it means: It was nice to see such a strong bounce-back effort from Florida following its disappointing loss to Auburn, though Wednesday night’s victory was likely more about an undermanned South Carolina squad not being up to snuff. Still, the Gators flashed tremendous teamwork with assists on 15 of their first 20 baskets and a season-high 28 assists on 37 makes in the contest. Florida also shot a season-best 62.3% from the floor and 42.9% from beyond the arc, hitting 9 of 21 long-range attempts, its first game making more than 37.5% of its triples.

The Gators were insanely dominant in the paint, as per usual, winning the rebounding battle 45-24 and the scoring effort 54-20 inside. Florida had a 32-3 edge on fastbreak points and only allowed four assists. It treated South Carolina like a team that had no business being in the same gym, which was particularly sweet considering the Gamecocks were the home team.

What’s next? Florida returns home to face yet another ranked opponent when No. 23 Alabama comes to town on Sunday. The game will tip off at 1 p.m. ET and air live nationally on ABC.