Condon flirts with triple-double as Gators smack JU

With Alex Condon flirting with a rare Florida triple-double, Rueben Chinyelu had the perfect solution to what might have been an historic night.

“Rueben was telling me just throw me the ball, it’s an automatic assist,” Condon said Thursday night after he scored 12 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and handed out eight assists as No. 1 Florida moved to 2-0 on the young season with an 88-57 win over the Jacksonville Dolphins at the O-Dome.

If Chinyelu got the ball in the low blocks there was every good chance the ball was either going in the basket or else he got fouled. His size alone (6-10, 265 pounds) made him an easy target for which JU had no one to match. One-on-one was a disaster, so the Dolphins surrounding Chinyelu any time he got the ball within five feet of the basket. Double teams didn’t work, nor did triple teams.

Chinyelu put up a career-high 21 points on 7-9 shooting from the field along with 7-9 from the foul line. He also grabbed eight rebounds, handed out an assist and blocked a shot. All in a rather good day at the office for the senior from Nigeria.

Chinyelu was at his overpowering best, but so were Condon and Tommy Haugh. Florida’s three front line guys combined for 47 points, 27 rebounds, 13 assists, a steal and four blocked shots. Together they shot 15-23 from the field overall, 3-6 from three and 14-17 from the foul line.

Condon’s flirtation with the triple-double included 2-3 shooting from the field including 1-2 from three and 5-6 from the foul line. On the bench, Todd Golden and the Florida staff were aware how close Condon was to the triple-double but he went to the bench for good with 10:32 left in the game.

“There was a thought, but at the end of the day, a big thing that we talked about going into this game was that was this is all about us and playing towards a standard and not worrying about individual success,” Golden said. “So, it’d be a little counter intuitive in that moment to kind of leave him in there and get an individual statistic when we were playing for the team and for the standard. Could’ve, maybe should’ve, but I think he’ll have other opportunities this year where he might be getting close to triple-doubles.”

Had he stayed in the game longer, Haugh might have had similar numbers to Condon. He filled up the stat sheet with 14 points, seven rebounds, four assists and a steal. He made 5-8 of his shots including 2-4 from three-point range.

More often than not, whenever Haugh or Condon grabbed a rebound on the defensive end they put the ball on the deck rather than outlet the ball to start the Gators in transition. The Gators consistently beat Jacksonville down the floor as the Gators were able to set up the offense before the Dolphins could get their defense set. It was a case of too much Florida size, speed, strength and athleticism for Jacksonville to handle.

“They’re [Haugh and Condon] both really athletic,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “They’re both very capable decisionmakers. With the transition push, I do think it’s more challenging for teams to stop them in transition when a front court player is bringing it up if they’re capable of doing that because they get in some mismatches in terms of their matchups. So, obviously, those guys have my trust, and I believe in their ability to make decisions in transition, and it kind of gives us another element offensively.”

Florida’s ability to spread the floor to create great passing angles opened up the outside for Denzel Aberdeen and lethal weapon three shooter Urban Klavzar who played nearly 20 minutes off the bench. Aberdeen hit 4-5 on threes while grabbing two rebounds and contributing a steal on defense. Klavzar, last year’s SEC Sixth Man of the Year, also contributed 12 points while hitting 3-5 on threes. It wasn’t a big night from a numbers standpoint for starting point guard Boogie Fland (four points, one rebound, three assists), but this was a night when he didn’t need to score. He just kept the ball moving and blew by JU defenders.

To Jacksonville’s credit, the Dolphins hung around with the Gators until the final five minutes of the first half. Almost as if they had a let’s put an end to this nonsense switch, the Gators went on a 19-2 tear to end the half, taking a 31-26 lead to 50-28 at the intermission.

Haugh got things started with a layup off a pass from the top of the key from Condon. During the scoring run, Haugh added a three off a pass from Chinyelu. Aberdeen hit two threes, the second off a pass from Haugh. Condon delivered a dunk back off a missed layup and a floater in the lane on an assist from Klavzar. Chinyelu punctuated the outburst with a thunderous dunk with 27 seconds to go in the half.

“Jacksonville, I thought, did a good job in the first half just slowing tempo and kinda keeping that game within reach,” Golden said. “And then, obviously, the last four minutes of the first half, I just think we wore them down a little bit, making some shots and turning misses into transition opportunities and got that lead up to 22 pretty quick. Played the right way in the second half with the exception of a couple of early turnovers. Their [Jacksonville] bigs hit a couple threes early, which wasn’t ideal, but the back-half of the second half, I thought we guarded very, very well.”

For the second straight game, the Gators played outstanding defense, holding JU to 19-57 shooting from the field and just 6-21 from the three-point line. The Gators outrebounded the Dolphins 51-25. In the paint, the Gators outscored the Dolphins 36-12 with a 23-11 advantage in second chance points. The Gators got 25 points from the bench with Klavzar (12), Isaiah Brown (4) and AJ Brown (3) leading the way.

Three-point shooting, a perceived weakness during Florida’s three exhibition games, was, for the second straight game, a highlight for the Gators. They hit 11-26 against Miami back on Monday night and followed that up with 11-25 against Jacksonville. The Gators started slowly from the three-point line a year ago, so a 22-51 start should be a sign of good things to come.

“It’s a big part of what we need to be the best team we can be,” Golden said. “I think we’re taking the right ones. We’re not forcing a ton of threes. They’re coming in our offense or in transition and we have the right guys taking them. If that continues I think we’ll continue to shoot the ball well all year.” In the win over Miami, the Gators made only 20-35 of their free throws. Florida’s 19-27 effort Thursday included 4-8 shooting off the bench from Arturas Butajevas (1-2), Viktor Mikic (2-4) and Alex Kovatchev (1-2).

Next up for the Gators is a trip to Tallahassee for the annual matchup with Florida State. The Seminoles (1-0), who started their season with a win over Florida A&M back on Monday, face Troy tonight.