By Ken Cross
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden described Florida’s 86-75 win over Vanderbilt as “A great program win”.
The Gators turned the page after the tough loss at Tennessee and recorded a 51-point second half in breaking open a close game that saw 11 ties and 12 lead changes.
Will Richard led the Florida attack with 21 points while Alex Condon added 19 as the Gators were without point guard Walter Clayton, Jr., who was sidelined with an ankle injury that he suffered Saturday against the Volunteers.
The Gators’ defense and a scoring push from role players Urban Klavzar and Sam Alexis gave them a 16-4 run over a 4:27 stretch to take a 65-54 lead. This was on the heels of Vanderbilt taking a 50-49 on a layup by Devin McGlockton.
In the differential stretch, Florida held Vanderbilt to 3-of-13 after Vandy shot 53.6 percent from the field in the first half.
“We were able to string together a couple stops, got some clean rebounds, finally got some transition, which was huge,” explained Golden. “We were not able to get very many kills tonight, and what I mean by that is three defensive stops in a row.”
Golden noted that the Gators produced two three-possession stops which were a key entity in that run.
“Once we were able to loosen them up in transition, we started scoring pretty well in the second half,” said Golden. “We scored 51, so we started getting what we wanted on that end, and we were able to guard them just enough.”
Condon’s play in the paint saw him make 7-of-11 field goals and he and Thomas Haugh led in rebounding with nine each. Condon and Haugh found each other in the High-Low sets where both players consistently scored or picked up a foul.
Klavzar and Alexis Ink Extra Minutes: The Gators outscored the Commodores, 16-4, over that 4:27 as guard Urban Klavzar scored his eight points by hitting a pair of threes and scoring on a clear out on the right side.
“Once he made that first three, I was pretty confident the second was going to go in,” said Golden. “You could tell he felt it a little bit, got a little confidence and just let it rip.”
Sam Alexis also nailed a three and Florida took its 65-54 lead which ended with an Alijah Martin score off dribble penetration.
Dynamics in the Backcourt: Richard and Denzel Aberdeen, who made his first start, had no turnovers in 39 and 35 minutes, respectively.
“That was a big part of this win,” relayed Golden. “We knew we had to have great ball control tonight, and we were without our point guard and to be able to come out of this game with only 10 turnovers, was definitely a huge reason as to why we won.”
Richard made 8-of-11 shots and five threes as he scored 11 points in the first 8:44 of the first half to paced Florida to a 55-50 advance with 11:16 left in the game.
“I knew I was going to have to be more aggressive and not trying to voice anything but making sure I was going to be more aggressive,” commented Richard. “Trying to be a leader on the court; I knew we were one man shot so I knew I had to step up a little more today.”
Aberdeen was exceptional in his first career start as he posted no turnovers in taking over the playmaking role.
“I knew at walk-through today I was going to start and I just prepared my mind so that we could get a win,” said Aberdeen.
Anchors Away: Vanderbilt responded to Saturday’s loss at Oklahoma will a full fight for 40 minutes. Jason Edwards led the Commodores with 21 points and McGlockton scored all 14 of his points in the second half. He was 6-of-9 from the field and started with immediacy after playing 15 minutes in the first half and not finding shot opportunities.
“We ran a couple of things to try to take advantage of ball screen coverage and Devin was good at it,” said Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington. “It was almost taking advantage of everything that the defense would give us. They were in ball screen overage in the first half and ice coverage in the second.”