Blowout at Georgia is a reminder of just how good the Gators can be

Xaivian Lee (1) works off a pick set by Micah Handlogten (Photo courtesy of UAA Communications)

Here is a scary thought for you. As good as the 14^th-ranked Florida Gators have been, what happens when they suddenly start making shots?

Georgia found out the hard way Wednesday night in Athens. Determined to at least neutralize the Gators in the paint, they left the perimeter wide open. Bad decision. Very bad decision.

For only the third time all season, the Gators found the range for 10 3-pointers and it wasn’t the usual suspects who did the most damage. Oh, Tommy Haugh made a three for the 19^th straight game, but this wasn’t one of his better shooting nights (1-6 from deep). Urban Klavzar, who’s been nailing threes left and right lately, had a good night – 2-4 from three – but Georgia did a good job limiting the number of good looks he got.

So Xaivian Lee stepped up and dropped in three threes. He was 3-9 for the game. Considering he came into the game hitting an icy 25 percent, 3-9 was huge. Altogether, he was 7-14 from the field. He backed up his 18-point night with three rebounds, seven assists and three steals. No turnovers. As in ZERO.

Isaiah Brown, a 31 percent shooter from long distance, drilled three in four attempts. He had 12 points off the bench.

Get this. Boogie Fland, who had thrown up 17 consecutive SCUDs, tossed one in for good measure.

So maybe giving the Gators the three seemed like a good idea at the moment for Mike White and Georgia, but when the clock flatlined at 00:00, Florida (18-6, 9-2 SEC) walked out of ancient Stegman Coliseum with an 86-66 win that keeps the Gators in sole possession of first place in the Southeastern Conference.

“We collectively, as a staff and as a program, think of our three-point shooting as a cherry on top,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “We don't want that to be what makes us good or what we rely upon to be a good team. We want it to be a thing where if we are shooting the ball well, that we're just really, really hard to beat. I thought that showed up in the first half when we went 6-for-14 from three. Obviously, had a 16-point lead going in halftime, shot 33 percent the second half, which is elite for us and something that we can build on moving forward.”

This wasn’t the same M.O. the Gators used to bushwhack their last four opponents. Those games were all about brute force in the paint. Now, that’s not to say the Gators didn’t do well on the inside – they outscored the Bulldogs in the paint 38-34, outrebounded them 42-35 – it’s just that Georgia gave them open threes and they knocked down shots which turned this into one more blowout. The Gators have outscored their last four opponents, 367-258. Florida’s nine SEC wins are by a combined 191 points.

This breaks down Georgia’s strategy. Haugh, Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu and Micah Handlogten, who typically combine for 47.8 points per game, combined to score 32. Holding those guys nearly 16 below their average and you have to think you’ve got a good chance to win. Georgia may have kept the Gators from scoring big on the inside, but Florida’s big guys grabbed 33 rebounds with Chinyelu going beast mode on the glass again with 20.

Limited inside scoring, no problem whatsoever. It was 10-0 before the antidote to the Georgia strategy came through with the first three, a bomb from Urban Klavzar. Lee got the next one and Brown followed that one with one of his own. That made it 19-7 with 12:31 to go.

Lee and Brown went back-to-back from three to put the Gators ahead 29-12 with 7:20 remaining in the first half. By the time the teams broke for the locker at halftime, it was 43-27.

Georgia scored the last four points of the first half and seven straight out the gate to start the second half. Down only 43-34, the Georgia faithful and the ESPN announcing crew started talking upset in the making. Wrong.

Then came the 3-ball. Again. Haugh and Klavzar delivered, stretching the lead back out to a more comfortable 15, 49-34, with 15:57 left in the game.

Golden wasn’t exactly a happy camper at that point so wholesale changes were made in the lineup.

“I think it speaks to the depth of our team, and I thought our bench was fantastic again tonight,” Golden said. “You look at Isaiah, Urby and Micah. We come out the second half, and I didn't think we had the energy that we necessarily needed to finish the game the right way. Credit to Georgia, they came out ready to compete in the second half. They went on a 6-0 run, which ended up being an 11-0 run when you go back in the 1st half, got down to nine. And we went to the bench. We subbed those three guys in, and next thing you know, we go in quick 6-0 run to go in the under-16 media at 15 as opposed to nine, and that's a big difference. They go in at the under-16 down nine, they're talking to each other about, ‘We're back in this thing. Let's go.’ Instead, it's 15, and it's like, ‘Man, we've been playing really well, but we haven't cut into it very much.’ And it speaks to our bench and our depth on our team.”

The Gators got a little sloppy with the ball later in the half, but when the Bulldogs narrowed the gap to 72-62 with 4:09 remaining, the Gators simply took the game over. A 3-pointer by Lee was the dagger with 3:56 left to make it a 75-62 game.

“He was great,” Golden said.  “He was one of the best players on the floor, clearly, tonight. I thought he did a great job just playing with poise, especially when Georgia tried to speed us up, taking care of the basketball, hit some really big threes – one early, two late – that kind of stymied a couple of their runs. I thought he played with really, really good poise all night. (He) ended up with 7 assists in this game with no turnovers. Says a lot about his effort.”

Defensively, it was just another day at the office for the Gators. Georgia came into the game averaging 91.9 points, second best in all of college basketball. The 66 Georgia scored was its lowest total all season and just the second time all year the Bulldogs have scored fewer than 70 in a game.

Georgia managed only 25-72 (34.7 percent) from the field overall and 8-29 (27.6  percent). Georgia turned the ball over 12 times which the Gators converted into 18 points.

“We're guarding, you know? We're guarding,” Golden said. “I think, especially to start games. I think they were 5-for-23 to start the game tonight, and we were up double digits pretty early. As I said after the last game, I think our team is getting to the point where we're enjoying kind of owning the identity of being a defensive, gritty, physical rebounding team that gets out in transition, takes advantage of opportunities that arise from our defense. And if we play like that, we're going to be in every ballgame and give ourselves a really good chance to win.”

Game notes: Xaivian Lee has zero turnovers in his last 86 minutes on the floor … Fland had 15 points to go with three rebounds and two steals. He hit 7-13 of his shots … Condon had 12 points, five rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal … Haugh’s box score – 11 points, two rebounds, five assists, one block and two steals … Chinyelu didn’t get a double-double, but he did become the fourth Gator in history to have a third 20-rebound game … The Gators have won five consecutive SEC road games.  

Elsewhere in the SEC

Alabama (17-7, 7-4 SEC) 93, Ole Miss (11-13, 3-8) 74: All of Latrell Wrightsell’s 21 points came from the 3-point line as Alabama won its third straight game. Freshman Amari Allen had an outstanding game with 13 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocked shots. AJ Storr came off the bench to score a game-high 27 for Ole Miss.

Missouri (17-7, 7-4 SEC) 86, Texas A&M (17-7, 7-4 SEC) 85: Missouri’s size was too much for the Aggies to overcome. They’ve lost three in a row. Mizzou’s winning points came on an alley-oop lob to 7-footer Shawn Phillips, who also blocked Rashaun Agee’s attempt at a game-winner at the buzzer. Trent Pierce led Missouri with 23 while Zach Clemence scored 20 for A&M.

Tennessee (17-7, 7-4 SEC) 73, Mississippi State (11-13, 3-8 SEC) 64: The Vols won this in the paint, outrebounding Mississippi State 45-31. Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 18 to lead Tennessee while freshman Nate Ament scored 16 to go with five assists. Josh Hubbard launched 24 shots for MSU and scored 31 points.

Saturday’s games

No. 25 Kentucky (17-7, 8-3 SEC) at No. 14 FLORIDA (18-6, 9-2 SEC)

Texas A&M (17-7, 7-4 SEC) at No. 19 Vanderbilt (20-4, 7-4 SEC)

Auburn (14-10, 5-6 SEC) at No. 21 Arkansas (18-6, 8-3 SEC)

South Carolina (11-13, 2-9 SEC) at Alabama (17-7, 7-4 SEC)

LSU (14-10, 2-9 SEC) at Tennessee (17-7, 7-4 SEC)

Texas (15-9, 6-5 SEC) at Missouri (17-7, 7-4 SEC)

Georgia (17-7, 5-6 SEC) at Oklahoma (12-12, 2-9 SEC)

Mississippi State (11-13, 3-8 SEC) at Ole Miss (11-13, 3-8 SEC)

Kenpom.com top 25: 1. Michigan 23-1; 2. Arizona 23-1; 3. Duke 22-2; 4. Houston 22-2; 5. FLORIDA 18-6; 6. Illinois 20-5; 7. Iowa State 21-3; 8. UConn 23-2; 9. Purdue 20-4; 10. Michigan State 20-4; 11. Gonzaga 24-2; 12. Kansas 19-5; 13. Vanderbilt 20-4; 14. Nebraska 21-3; 15. Louisville 18-6; 16. Arkansas 18-6; 18. Tennessee 17-7; 18. Virginia 21-3; 19. Iowa 18-5; 20. Alabama 17-7; 21. BYU 18-6; 22. Texas Tech 17-6; 23. St. John’s 19-5; 24. Saint Louis 23-1; 25. Utah State 21-3 (Other SEC teams: 27. Kentucky 17-7; 31. Auburn 14-10; 33. Texas 15-9; 35. Texas A&M 17-7; 41. Georgia 17-7; 52. Missouri 17-7; 56. LSU 14-10; 58. Oklahoma 12-12; 71. Ole Miss 11-13; 88. Mississippi State 11-13; 99. South Carolina 11-13

Barttorvik.com top 25: 1. Michigan 23-1; 2. Houston 22-2; 3. Arizona 23-1; 4. FLORIDA 17-6; 5. Duke 22-2; 6. Illinois 20-5; 7. UConn 23-2; 8. Purdue 20-4; 9. Iowa State 21-3; 10. Kansas 19-5; 11. Vanderbilt 20-4; 12. Nebraska 21-3; 13. Texas Tech 18-6; 14. Louisville 18-6; 15. Michigan State 20-4; 16. Gonzaga 24-2; 17. Tennessee 17-7; 18. Virginia 21-3; 19. Alabama 17-7; 20. Arkansas 18-6; 21. St. John’s 19-5; 22. Saint Louis 23-1; 23. Iowa 18-6; 24. Indiana 17-8; 25. Clemson 20-5 (Other SEC teams: 30. Texas A&M 17-7; 31. Auburn 14-10; 39. Kentucky 17-7; 41. Texas 15-9; 43. Georgia 17-7; 49. Missouri 17-7; 58. Oklahoma 12-12; 66. LSU 14-10; 77. Ole Miss 11-13; 88. Mississippi State 11-13; 102. South Carolina 11-13

WORST TO FIRST IN THE SEC

16. South Carolina (11-13, 2-9 SEC): The fans want a new coach. Lamont Paris is not the answer.

15. Mississippi State (11-13, 3-8 SEC): Josh Hubbard hung 31 on the Vols and Mississippi State still lost.

14. Oklahoma (12-12, 2-9 SEC): If Porter Moser can’t get the Sooners to the NIT then Porter Moser will be seeking gainful employment elsewhere.

13. Ole Miss (11-13, 3-8 SEC): The Rebels have a get well game with Mississippi State Saturday.

12. LSU (14-10, 2-9 SEC): The schedule is brutal the rest of the way. Making the NIT seems like a pipe dream.

11. Missouri (17-7, 7-4 SEC): Beating the Aggies in College Station was huge. The Tigers get Texas at home next.

10. Georgia (17-7, 5-6 SEC): Georgia is starting to look like an NIT team. The Bulldogs have squandered a 13-1 start to the season.

9. Texas A&M (1-7, 7-4 SEC): Three straight losses. The lack of size and talent is catching up to the Aggies.

8. Auburn (14-10, 5-6 SEC): Three straight losses and Saturday at Arkansas?

7. Texas (15-9, 6-5 SEC): The Longhorns are on the NCAA bubble. They need a couple of good wins to ensure they’ll be dancing in March.

6. Tennessee (17-7, 7-4 SEC): Freshman Nate Ament is being asked to carry the Vols. He’s good, but is he that good?

5. Vanderbilt (20-4, 7-4 SEC): Duke Miles can’t get healthy fast enough.

4. Alabama (17-7, 7-4 SEC): No Charles Bediako, no problem. The Tide went 3-2 with him in the lineup.

3. Kentucky (17-7, 8-3 SEC): The Wildats have won eight of nine since starting the SEC portion of the schedule 0-2.

2. Arkansas (17-6, 7-3 SEC): If everybody is healthy, the Razorbacks can beat anyone in the league except Florida.

1. FLORIDA (18-6, 9-2 SEC): Time to face facts. The Gators are flat out good.