By Ken Cross
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida coach Todd Golden is looking for his Gators to put together a solid 40-minute effort on both ends of the floor. Friday night, he didn’t get the solid 40 minutes, but he saw Florida’s three-point game and two strong defensive stretches in each half empower Florida to a 93-68 win over Southern Illinois.
Guard Alijah Martin returned to his shooting identity as he made 8-of-13 threes as he netted 32 points for the Gators’ season high while forward Thomas Haugh added 19 with his quality inside-outside game.
“We just have not collectively shot it well until tonight,” noted Golden. “Alijah – he’s done it before. He had a really strong scrimmage against FIU where he shot it well. Tonight, obviously, he had the hot hand.”
Martin scored 10 consecutive points in a 21-2 Florida run that saw Florida’s lead move to 35-15 with 5:11 left before halftime.
“Credit my teammates,” said Martin. “It was pointed out to me these last couple of weeks that I haven’t shot the ball like I wanted to. Everybody was there to help me stay confident and stay ready, so much credit to those guys.”
In that stretch, the Gators had potentially their best sequence of defense do far this season when they held Southern Illinois to 1-of-8 from the field while forcing six turnovers.
“When you do get stops, its easier to get clean rebounds more steals, and it’s easier to run on the opponent,” said Golden. That really showed up in that moment and we did in the second half to get it up to 30. I just want to see that more consistent over 40 minutes.”
Haugh worked on his three-point game over the spring and summer and proved his improvement in this win. He hit his three triples in the first half as he complemented Martin in allowing Florida to take the upper hand early.
I didn’t shoot the ball great at the beginning of the year, but my teammates still trusted me and hopefully, I get into rhythm here because all that work I am hoping it finishes into something too,” said Haugh.
The Gators closed out early when they hit a 15-5 run over an early 4:30 stretch in the second half as Martin’s back-to-back threes have Florida a 61-34 lead with 14 minutes remaining.
“We played pretty well offensively again,” said Golden. “We have not been able to play 40 complete minutes defensively or on the glass. We let ourselves off the hook that way. Those are probably hypercritical thoughts after a 25-point win.”
Martin was close to his career high of 34 points that he set for Florida Atlantic when the Owls defeated FIU in 2022.
“That’s what I mean by just staying locked in,” commented Martin. “When we see something like this going on, just not doing what we know we are supposed to for one full rep, one break, to tire or whatever. That’s something we have to do and just keep building on to that.”
Ali Dibba led three Salukis in double figures with 17 points. Florida held Southern Illinois to 35 percent from the field and forced 12 turnovers while committing only six turnovers, themselves.
“Obviously 25 assists and 6 turnovers, we can complain about the rebounding in the second half and we can complain about some of the lazy defensive plays in the second half, When you have that assist-to-turnover ratio as a team, 25 assists is really hard to do,” Golden explained.