Gators blow out Merrimack to continue their defensive evolution

UAA Photo by Maddie Washburn

There wasn’t exactly plenty to prove Friday night at the O-Dome. The Merrimack Warriors (2-4) weren’t much more than cannon fodder for 10^th-ranked Florida (4-1) but a sellout crowd of 10,935 got to see the Gators continue their evolution as an elite defensive team. Florida allowed 28.6 percent shooting overall and just 16 percent from the 3-point line while outrebounding the shorter, less talented Warriors, 53-25, with Rueben Chinyelu gathering in 21 rebounds, most by a Gator in the shot clock era.

“We gotta be an elite defensive team where we're making it really hard on a team to score,” Florida coach Todd Golden said after the Gators dismantled Merrimack, 80-45.  “We held them under 30 percent from the field tonight. That's a pretty elite effort. We're guarding the 3-point line well, and we're taking a lot of pride on that end. Everybody that's in the lineup, we have some guys struggling in some different areas offensively, but collectively our defensive effort is really, really good right now.”

The win, Florida’s fourth straight, moved the Gators up one spot to No. 5 in the kenpom.com analytical rankings. The Gators are now No. 4 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency.

Offensively, the Gators were steady but unspectacular. They did shoot the ball better from the 3-point line – 8-22, 36.4 percent – for their best effort of the season. Overall, the Gators shot 43.5 percent on 27-62 shooting from the field. On 3-point attempts, the Gators had their best evening of the season. Florida is still looking for a breakout game in which the outside shooters all heat up at the same time, but at least Friday night the shots were spread around.

Boogie Fland, who scored 10 points, hit 2-3 on 3-pointers against Merrimack’s 2-3 zone. Urban Klavzar, who broke out with 4-7 3-point shooting against Miami back on Sunday, hit two threes off the bench as did Isaiah Brown, who was 2-3. In the second half, freshmen CJ Ingram and Alex Lloyd came off the bench to hit a three.

Klavzar is a baby-faced assassin who is expected to drill threes when he comes off the bench. Brown’s two 3-pointers came as a bit of a surprise to the crowd but Goden has seen enough of the talented sophomore in practice to know what he is capable of doing.

“Obviously getting a couple threes from him tonight was huge,” Golden said. “He has the capability to do that. Zay is a guy that we came into this year kind of counting on or thinking that, you know, we can rely on him. And he kind of had an up and down fall, but he's playing really well right now. I think he's in a great head space, has a great understanding of what we need from him in that role, and when he can help us by making a couple threes, obviously that's icing on the cake. But he was plus-20 in his minutes. I thought he defended pretty well, and two blocks, he's competing really well.”

Overall, Florida’s defense continued its climb to true elite status, allowing the Warriors only four second chance points. The Gators rarely allowed the Warriors to get anything easy on the inside and the outside shooting was a nightmare as Florida was outstanding in closing out shooters.

Merrimack’s best two shooters – Ernest Shelton (1-8) and Tye Dorsett (1-10) – were a combined 2-18 on their 3-point attempts. The Warriors couldn’t compete with the taller, more physical Gators on the inside so they tried to even things up at the 3-point line, but the struggle there was just as tough as the Gators were outstanding in their closeouts. 

It marked another game of defensive improvement for Tommy Haugh, who played some at the high post buit spent the bulk of his time on the perimeter. The 6-9 Haugh, who contributed 14 points, four rebounds and two assists on the offensive end of the court, continued to show his capability defending on the perimeter against smaller, quick players.  Shelton, who was Haugh’s primary defensive assignment, came into the game averaging 22.5 points per game, barely scratched against Haugh. Shelton managed 1-9 shooting overall, 1-8 on 3-point bombs.

"I think that's always been a strength of his, being able to slide his feet,” Golden said. “And he has really good IQ, so he's able to kind of operate those low-high switches and be in the right place at the right time. He's getting more comfortable. He's just getting more reps out there being on the wing. I thought he did a really good job on Shelton. Shelton was averaging 30 a night, shooting over 50 from 3 coming into this game or at least going into their last game before they played Maine. And we held him to 1-for-9 tonight. We made it really hard on him and that's a good player. So credit to Tommy for the growth that he's made in those different areas."

Florida was ahead 11-0 before Merrimack scratched on offense with 14:53 left in the half. After Merrimack scored two to cut the margin to seven, the Gators ripped off the next 21 straight points.

The Warriors could hardly catch their collective breaths because when the Gators weren’t forcing the issue with their perimeter defense, they were pounding away on the inside where Chinyelu and Alex Condon were unstoppable against a front line that didn’t start a player taller than 6-7. Chinyelu had seven points and 12 first half rebounds while Condon had 12 points and seven rebounds.

The Gators weren’t at their best offensively at any point in the game, but they more than made up for any deficiency with an outstanding defensive effort. Not everything the Gators did, not just in the first half but the entire game, showed up in the box score.

“For me, I measure guys on how they do with the things that don't require talent,” Golden said. “Are they defending? Are they rebounding? Are they taking care of the ball? Are they on the scouting report? Are they diving on the floor for loose balls? Are they blocking out? All these different things. Those are the things that we care about and we'll worry about the shot-making later. But for now, the guys in the rotation are doing their job in those areas."

Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu ran a nice 1-2 game that Merrimack was woeful to stop. The two combined for 34 points, 32 rebounds, two assists, two blocked shots and a steal. It marked the third straight double-double for Chinyelu, whose line read 14 points, 21 rebounds and two blocked shots.

“The thing that we're really proud of Rueben about is he's just gotten better and better and better and better, from where he was beginning last year to how he was playing at the beginning of conference play, to how he's playing in the tournament, to where he is now,” Golden said. “Every couple of months he's making a jump and he's a guy that we're counting on to be a huge part of our team.”

Game notes: Condon led the Gators with 20 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and a steal … Haugh finished with 13 points, four rebounds and two assists … Fland scored 10 points to go with one rebound, three assists, one steal and one blocked shot … CJ Ingram (five points) and Alex Lloyd (three points) each hit a 3-pointer … Viktor Mikic had two points and three rebounds … Olivier Rioux scored his first point as a Gator on a free throw late in the game … The Gators are off until next week when they travel to San Diego to play in the Rady Children’s Classic. On Thursday they’ll play TCU (3-2) and on Friday they get the winner of Providence (3-2) and 23^rd-ranked Wisconsin (4-1), which was hosed Friday night by 9^th-ranked BYU, 98-70.

SEC BASKETBALL

No. 12 Kentucky (4-2) 88, Loyola Maryland (2-5) 46: Former Gator Denzel Aberdeen had 11 points, eight rebounds and six assists while playing a game-high 28 minutes for Kentucky.

No. 21 Arkansas (5-1) 115, Jackson State (0-5) 61: The Razorbacks hit 9-18 from the 3-point line and were credited with 14 steals as they obliterated winless Jackson State.

LSU (5-0) 99, Omaha (2-4) 78: UNLV transfer Dedan Thomas had 15 points and 10 assists while Max MacKinnon scored 22 as LSU remained unbeaten.

Butler (4-1) 79, South Carolina (4-1) 72: Meechie Johnson scored 24 points as South Carolina lost its first game of the season.

New Mexico (4-2) 80, Mississippi State (2-3) 78: Uriah Tennette’s two free throws with seven seconds left sealed New Mexico’s win over Mississippi State in the Hall of Fame Classic consolation game. Josh Hubbard scored 29 points and Quincy Ballard 21 for Mississippi State.

Sunday’s games

Clemson (5-1) at Georgia (6-0)

Alcorn State (0-6) at Oklahoma (3-2)

South Carolina (4-1) at Northwestern (4-1)