Defense, rebounding prevail as Gators take down No. 18 Georgia

Boogie Fland (0) sizes up Georgia's Jordan Ross (Photo by Chris Spears)

Until an exorcist is hired to remove the demons that have turned the Florida Gators into the gang that can’t shoot straight, what we saw Tuesday night against Georgia is pretty much what we’re going to get. Todd Golden would love to have another bombs away team like the one he had last year, but that was then. This is now, and now the Gators are a team that will hit an occasional three, but will have to pound opponents into submission with defense, rebounding and dominating in the paint.

“It’s how we are built,” Golden said after the Gators (10-5, 1-1 SEC) took down 18^th-ranked Georgia (13-2, 1-1 SEC), 92-77, at the O-Dome. “It’s who we are and I think the more that we accept and take pride in the kind of being the ugly, gritty, physical team, I think we’ll see good results.”

Against Georgia Tuesday night, it appeared Florida’s identity crisis had been resolved. As usual, the Gators didn’t shoot very well from beyond the 3-point line – just 6-25, which isn’t far off from the norm – but they played with furious intensity on the defensive end taking away Georgia’s 3-point game while forcing one-and-done possessions. Georgia made only 4-19 of its 3-point attempts. Excellent defense, yes, but the key number is 19. Georgia came into the game the nation’s highest scoring team at a fraction less than 100 a game, but the Gators sliced 22 points off their norm in large part by forcing the Bulldogs off the 3-point line.

Georgia shooters Jeremiah Wilkinson (1-9 from the field overall, just 0-2 from three) and Blue Cain (3-9 overall, 0-4 from three) were taken out of the game. The two combined for 46 points in Georgia’s win over Auburn last Saturday. Without their scoring, Georgia struggled offensively and was held to fewer than 80 points for only the second time all season.

“I’d say with the exception of (Kanon) Catchings, we let him get a couple off at the beginning of the second half and (Smurf) Millender making a tough one in the first half but other than that I thought we had great urgency on the perimeter,” Golden said. “The way that we play, we’re going to live with tough twos overhand, but we’re not going to live with good threes. I thought they took some tough ones and I think that shows in their percentage.”

The Gators weren’t bothered by Georgia’s full court press. The Gators put the ball in the hands of Boogie Fland and Xaivier Lee who either dribbled through the attempted traps or found Alex Condon or Tommy Haugh in the middle to break the pressure. Georgia forced one first half 10-second violation, but otherwise Florida had little trouble breaking the press.

The Gators were able to use Georgia’s helter-skelter pace and style to their advantage, because once past midcourt there were driving lanes available and space for Florida’s big guys to manipulate. The combination of defense, rebounding and breaking the press contributed mightily to Florida’s 35-10 advantage on fast breaks, not to mention a 58-38 advantage in the paint.

The Gators continued to try to shoot their way out of the slump that has them hitting only 27.7 percent from the 3-point line all season. Against Georgia, the Gators were 6-25 with Urban Klavzar (3-7) and Haugh (2-5) providing most of the firepower. The rest of the team combined to go 1-13.

When shots didn’t fall, there was no need for panic because second and sometimes third chances were available. The Gators, who lead the nation in offensive rebounding, grabbed 22 against Georgia.

“I mean their 22 offensive rebounds are loud, and they slow down your offensive tempo,” Georgia coach Mike White said. “They extend their possessions.”

Any hope that Georgia could neutralize Florida’s bigs came to a crashing halt 10 minutes into the first half when Somto Cyril, one of the nation’s top shot blockers, was ejected for a flagrant foul. Florida would have had the advantage anyway but without Cyril, the Gators were unstoppable in the paint.

The Bulldogs were able to keep it close for a half (Florida led 41-40 at the intermission) and they took the lead on Catchings’ three just 23 seconds into the second half, but after that it was all Florida. The first six minutes of the half belonged to Boogie Fland, who broke the press and took it to the rack where he scored all eight of his points (4 free throws, 2 driving layups) while leading the Gators to a 59-47 advantage.

Fland went 0-3 from the 3-point line, but that was pretty much his only negative. He finished the game with eight points, eight rebounds, six assists and a steal, one of his more complete games of the season.

“In the second half we did a great job defending, and you know he [Fland] just gave us that complete point guard game with stuffing the stat sheet, and he’s done a great job facilitating all year,” Golden said. “He had seven assists and one turnover against Missouri, six and three tonight. A couple of them were against good pressure … We need him to start knocking down some threes, but the output in all those other areas was fantastic, and he played a very good game tonight.” 

As much trouble as Georgia had handling Fland, the Bulldogs found it impossible to match the Gators on the inside at either end of the court. Haugh, Condon, Rueben Chinyelu and Micah Handlogten combined for 57 points, 35 rebounds and 10 blocked shots.

Haugh played 36 energetic minutes, scoring 21 points while grabbing 12 rebounds. He also passed for five assists and had three steals and four blocked shots on the defensive end.

“Yeah he’s turned himself into one of the better players in America, and has gone from, a hard playing role player as a freshman to a really, really good complementary piece as a sophomore to now just taking off, I mean to a guy who’s going to hear his name called in probably five or six months,” Golden said. “And it’s a testament to his work, his belief, his coachability … you know, he’s incredibly coachable. Too coachable sometimes. I want him to yell at his teammates sometimes and be more of a vocal leader, but he’s an incredible leader by example, and he is what a Gator is, man, he’s great for our program.”

Condon matched Haugh with 21 points and had eight rebounds and two blocked shots. Chinyelu had 10 points and four rebounds, while Handlogten had six points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots. Six of Handlogten’s rebounds came on the offensive end of the floor.

This game was quite a bounce back from the disappointing loss at Missouri. The Gators needed this win desperately and they delivered with a quality win against a ranked team. The Gators proved capable of hanging with some of the best teams in America in the non-conference schedule, but they wound up with close call losses away from Gainesville to No. 1 Arizona, No. 4 UConn and No. 6 Duke.

Getting a win over a ranked team was important. Getting it at home was a confidence builder.  

I felt like this was the first game where we played a really good team this year where, like, we have a little bit of an advantage going up against, you know, playing at home,” Golden said. “When we played Arizona, we played out in Vegas, they had a huge crowd. When we played Duke, obviously it was at Cameron Indoor. UConn, we were playing in New York, like we played this tough, really tight game and we couldn’t get over the hump. And I just felt like, you know, I know we have a really good team, and we just couldn’t find a way to get one of those games done.

“Missouri, same deal, they get two guys back, they’re hitting tough shots. Credit to them, they played well, but sometimes you want luck to go your way, and we hadn’t really felt that. And I thought tonight was an opportunity where we knew we’re gonna have the crowd behind us, we’re gonna be sleeping in our own beds the night before against a really good team … we had to go out and do it … this was an opportunity for us to go get a big win, and our guys delivered.”

SEC BASKETBALL

No. 21 Tennessee (11-4, 1-1 SEC) 85, Texas (9-6, 0-2 SEC) 71: Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 34 points for the Vols, hitting 5-8 of his 3-pointers. He also had four rebounds, five assists and three steals. Texas got 20 from Tramon Mark.

South Carolina (10-5, 1-1 SEC) 78, LSU (12-3, 0-2 SEC) 68: South Carolina hit its first nine shots and at one point led 35-10 in the first half, then hung on in the second half when LSU rallied to within nine. Elijah Strong scored 30 points for South Carolina, which made 12-21 of its 3-pointers. Max Mackinnon scored 15 for LSU.

Texas A&M (12-3, 2-0 SEC) 90, Auburn (9-6, 0-2 SEC) 88: A miracle finish for Auburn was denied when KeShawn Murphy’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was ruled no good. The red lights on the backboard went on but the clock above showed time when the ball left Murphy’s hands. Still, it was ruled no good and the Aggies got the win. Pop Isaacs came off the bench to score 21 to lead the Aggies. Keyshawn Hall led Auburn with 32 points and 12 rebounds.

Today’s games

No. 13 Alabama (11-3) at No. 11 Vanderbilt (14-0)

No. 15 Arkansas (11-3) at Ole Miss (8-6)

Missouri (11-3) at Kentucky (9-5)

Oklahoma (11-3) at Mississippi State (9-5)