Big guys dominate as Gators bludgeon North Florida, 104-64

Alex Condon operates in the paint against UNF (Photo by Chris Spears)

The North Florida Ospreys didn’t bus over from Jacksonville with even the slightest illusion of springing an upset Thursday night. They showed up at the O-Dome prepared to offer up a measure of resistance in exchange for a paycheck. Their moment to shine came with 15:31 remaining in the first half when Dalton Gayman hit a pair of free throws for a 10-9 lead.

Over the next four minutes, the Ospreys felt the wrath of a Florida team that lost its season opener three nights earlier. Starting with a 3-point play by Alex Condon on a power move that could have put one of the Osprey defenders in the basket along with the ball, 3^rd-ranked Florida went on a 15-0 power flex that put UNF in its Atlantic Sun Conference place. Boogie Fland dunked after a steal. Condon threw one down after an offensive rebound. Micah Handlogten almost tore the rim off the backboard and Condon slammed one home on a fast break pass from freshman CJ Ingram.

North Florida broke up the dunk-a-thon with a 3-pointer only to see the Gators go beast mode once again, this one a 12-0 run that featured a fast break hammer of a dunk by Tommy Haugh and a Handlogten tip-in of an Isaiah Brown miss on a fast break that made it 36-13. The Gators never let off the gas in building a 52-28 lead at halftime.

It was relentless. It was unmerciful. It was the Gators playing at a very high level.  

This was the kind of response that Florida coach Todd Golden needed to see from the Gators after their 93-87 loss to Arizona in Las Vegas Monday night. He wanted the Gators to play fast, to play angry and to dominate. He got what he was looking for. The Gators scored 52 points in each half, outrebounded the Ospreys 64-24, and held the visitors to 19-61 shooting overall (31.1 percent), 7-28 from the 3-point line (25 percent).

“We talked a lot about coming back with great energy and playing with a lot of intensity after Monday night,” Golden said after the Gators put a 104-64 thrashing on UNF. If it was dominance Golden wanted to see, dominance was what he got, particularly from big guys who were schooled in the paint by Arizona.

North Florida in no way could match Florida’s size and strength but what the four big guys did was impressive nonetheless: Condon (25 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocked shots), Tommy Haugh (12 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal), Rueben Chinyelu (8 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists) and Handlogten (17 points, 13 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 blocked shot).

Condon played up to the preseason All-American hype and Haugh had a second straight do what the team needs most kind of game. Chinyelu, who had one more rebound than a dead man against Arizona, had nine boards in a little more than 19 minutes.

Handlogten turned in the most impressive outing of his Florida career and certainly the best since coming back from a gruesome fracture of his leg in the 2024 Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game. In 18:28 of playing time against UNF Handlogten made 7-9 of his shots from the field and 3-3 from the foul line.

“Micah is a great player,” Golden said. “He didn’t get as much of an opportunity last year coming in late in the season, but as I said a million times, we don’t win the championship without him. He had an incredible offseason, got himself in the best shape he’s been in his whole entire life, and he’s playing incredibly well right now – 17 points and 13 rebounds in 18 minutes. He is very good with the ball, keeps it in our offense, does a great job. Probably a top three or four offensive rebounder in the country and that might not be giving him enough credit. Just does a great job creating second chances for us and he’s become an even better player than he was prior to the injury. And he’s been one of the best big men in America in terms of centers in my opinion.”

No doubt, the big guys did a curb stomp of the Ospreys but the Gators weren’t so impressive out on the perimeter where it was a second straight gang that couldn’t shoot straight effort. The guys on the perimeter drew iron far more often than nylon when they loaded up from the 3-point line. Whereas the Gators shot 69.4 percent on shots inside the arc and scored 66 points in the paint, they never heated up from the outside.

The Gators followed up that 7-27 shooting night from the 3-point line against Arizona with a 6-32 effort against North Florida. In between freshman Alex Lloyd’s 3-pointer with 8:21 to go in the first half and Haugh’s three after an offensive rebound with 14:59 to go in the game, the Gators missed 12 straight 3-pointers.

Six laser-guided 3-point bombs, 26 SCUDs, 18.8 percent shooting. That’s 13-59 in two games, which is 22 percent. Many of Florida’s 46 misses from the 3-point line were uncontested. If there is a concern about the Gators’ ability to make another deep run in the NCAA Tournament it is the outside shooting. Golden believes his shooters are simply off to a bad start, but opponents can read box scores and scouting reports, too. Until they are convinced the Gators can make open shot, they’re going to pack the paint and dare the shooters to put the ball in the basket.

Other than their 3-point shooting – Fland and Xaivian Lee were a combined 2-11 – Golden liked the play of his starting backcourt. Fland (10 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal) had his second straight turnover-free game. He ran the offense flawlessly but he was 0-3 from the 3-point line. Xavian Lee (10 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 blocked shot) played the point and the wing. He was 2-8 from the 3-point line.  

Fland and Lee both played more than 26 minutes. Golden subbed freely which led to some odd combinations, but it gave him an opportunity to play young guys that will be required to provide quality minutes as the season wears on. Urban Klavzar, who scored eight against Arizona, went 0-5 (0-4 from the 3-point line) against UNF. Isaiah Brown (9 points, 9 rebounds, 1 steal) had a highlight reel steal and dunk. He was 4-11 shooting, 1-3 from the 3-point line. CJ Ingram (5 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal) was once again the first perimeter guy off the bench. Alex Lloyd (4 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal) went 1-5 from the field, all of them 3-pointers.

Viktor Mikic (4 points, 1 rebound, 1 blocked shot) came off the bench late as did 7-9 redshirt freshman Olivier Rioux, who sent the crowd into a frenzy when he got in the game for the final 2:02.

These first two games have given a glimpse of how Golden is likely to rotate his players in and out in the future. He has a 4-man rotation of bigs in Condon, Haugh, Chinyelu and Handlogten and a 4-man backcourt rotation of Fland, Lee, Klavzar and Ingram with Brown a swing guy who can play the perimeter and guard small forwards.

This was a paycheck game for North Florida. They will be tough and capable in the Atlantic Sun Conference but against a team like the Gators, no way.

For Florida, it was the easy, expected win. Essentially, this was a nothing to prove type of game, but it was another opportunity for Golden to see his guys in action against another team. The Gators are more than capable of a deep NCAA Tournament run. Nobody in the country has the size, talent and experience of the front line. Fland and Lee are skilled and capable of being dynamic players at both ends of the court, but they’re new and still meshing with their teammates. The kids coming off the bench are talented, but inexperienced. Bringing them along to where he can count on them for quality minutes will be a major point of emphasis for Golden.

Next up for the Gators is Florida State (1-0) Tuesday night at the O-Dome.

Game notes: The Gators shot 49.4 percent overall … Florida had nearly as many offensive rebounds (29) as rebounds on the defensive end … The Gators outscored the Ospreys 40-11 on second chance points, 28-11 on fast breaks and 39-20 in points off the bench … It was the second straight game in which the Gators had more than 20 assists … One overlooked defensive stat is the Gators held UNF to only two assists, which tells you there was serious disruption to the Ospreys ability to move the ball.