Gators dominate the backboards, take down Florida State, 78-76

(UAA Photo)

When the 3-point shots begin to fall as eventually Todd Golden believes they will, the Florida Gators might be as good as any college basketball team in the country. But until the Gators start making shots with any measure of consistency some games are going to resemble a bare knuckles street brawl, decided by the biggest and strongest team.

When it comes to finding the bottom of the net from the 3-point line, the Gators are off to a miserable start. They’ve made 19 threes in 90 attempts, a dismal 21.1 percent. Tuesday night against unranked Florida State at the O-Dome, the Gators were 6-31 from behind the arc and they compounded matters by turning the ball over 18 times. If not for a 58-36 margin on the backboards, the 10^th-ranked Gators would have gone down in flames.

“They outrebounded us by 22 and to me, that was the difference,” Florida State first year coach Luke Loucks said after the Gators eked out a 78-76 win that came down to a wide open three from the corner by Urban Klavzar and four free throws in the final 15.8 seconds, two by Boogie Fland and two by Alex Condon.

The rebounds had plenty to do with the outcome, but it really shouldn’t have been close. Florida led the game 69-60 with 6:32 left in the game, but instead of pounding the Seminoles into submission, the Gators got sloppy. Five turnovers and five missed threes allowed FSU to go on a 10-2 run that made it a 71-70 game with 1:24 left when Robert McCray V hit a pair of free throws. After a 30-second time out, Xaivian Lee found Klavzar in the corner for a wide open shot that broke a streak of six straight 3-point misses.

That shot was critical because McCray scored three straight points to once again whittle the lead down to a single point. Fland expanded the lead to 76-73 when he nailed a pair of free throws with 15.8 seconds and then Florida’s defense did its part, forcing a McCray miss from three that could have tied the game. Condon grabbed the miss, was fouled immediately and calmly dropped in two foul shots with 5.7 seconds left.

A 5-point cushion shrunk to two when McCray once again bombed away, nailing yet another three less than a second to go, forcing the Gators to inbounds the ball with four-tenths of a second remaining. FSU fouled Tommy Haugh, who missed both free throws. Chauncey Wiggins rebounded for FSU but his desperation heave came up short.

It wasn’t an aesthetically pleasing game for Golden, but it was a win just the same. This early in the season, you take a win however you have to pull it out. The Gators missed too many open threes. Too many of the 18 turnovers were unforced errors. FSU’s press caused too many problems in a first half that the Seminoles led 40-37 at the break.

“I thought we were a little sporadic and erratic in the first half,” Golden said. “… Listen, when you play a team that plays this way defensively, you’re going to turn the ball over some. Like that’s going to be a part of it, but the ones that we can’t live with are the unforced turnovers … breaking the press, no pressure, throwing it out of bounds, or, you know, spinning baseline and firing out of bounds with three minutes. Like, we can’t afford those turnovers, because this team has the capacity to be a really good ball-handling team. And I think we have to be a great ball-handling team if we want to be as good as we hope to be because I think one of our strengths is our ball-handling, our IQ and our feel. And, you know, in a game like this, I thought for a majority of the second half we did a good job, but late it bit us. And I thought early it bit us. We wanted to hold that number [of turnovers] under 12, and obviously that got up to 18.”

Florida’s big guys were difference-makers. They combined for 45 points, 41 rebounds, six assists and seven blocked shots. Every bit as important was the Gators’ ability to defend on the perimeter with big guys 23 feet from the basket. Tommy Haugh, Chinyelu, Condon and Micah Handlogten not only were tough for the Seminoles to shoot over, but quick enough to cut off the driving lanes.

Florida’s got some big boys,” Loucks said. “It’s one thing to see it on film, another thing to see it in person … they’ve got size everywhere.”

The Seminoles organized chaos approach was effective in a first half that saw the Gators playing from behind the last eight minutes. Things changed in the second half when Haugh elevated his game. The Gators were trailing 44-40 when Haugh pretty much took over the game on both ends of the floor.

It started with a driving layup with 17:12 left in the game that cut the FSU lead in half. Following an FSU three by Kobe McGee, Haugh answered with a three of his own. Over the next two minutes he had a rebound, a blocked shot and an assist as the Gators gradually took control of the game. Haugh tied the game at 55-55 with 12:09 left on an offensive rebound dunk-back and he gave the Gators the lead for good at 59-57 with 9:38 left on a driving layup.

Haugh’s second half numbers were nine points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. He finished the game with 20 points and 13 rebounds.

With the momentum created by Haugh, the Gators went on a 20-7 run fueled by an 11-point burst by Fland, who hit his first two threes as a Gator.  

“I thought he played his best half as a Gator in the second half, obviously,” Golden said. “I’m sure it felt good for him to see the ball in the net from the perimeter in the jersey. But I thought he was really just aggressive and did a great job finding his spots. I’m not sure how many he had at halftime, but he had double-digit scoring in the second half, two threes, got to the line a couple times. He was really good. And his floor game, listen, he only had one turnover. When you’re playing on the ball for the majority of the game against this group is hard to do. Four steals, got on the glass. I thought he rebounded really well from the guard position. And credit to him, he stepped up big time and gave us some really good minutes in the second half.”

Haugh (20 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots) and Fland (18 points, five rebounds, one assist, four steals) led a contingent of four Gators in double figures. Chinyelu had a career high 16 rebounds to go with 10 points, one assist and two blocked shots. Condon finished with 13 points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocked shots and a steal.

This wasn’t a write home to Mom kind of game for the Gators, but it was a good all-around effort. When the Gators start hitting the threes they will have a chance to go from good to outstanding.

It is just a matter of time before that happens.

SEC BASKETBALL

No. 12 Louisville (3-0) 96, No. 9 Kentucky (2-1) 88: Former Gator Denzel Aberdeen  had 26 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a steal but it wasn’t enough as Kentucky suffered a road loss at Louisville.

No. 21 Arkansas (2-1) 93, Central Arkansas (1-2) 56: Freshman Darius Acuff had 21 points, six rebounds, four assists and a blocked shot while Karter Knox had a double double with 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Razorbacks.

No. 22 Auburn (3-0) 93, Wofford (1-2) 62: UCF transfer Keyshawn Hall filled up the stat sheet with 20 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, two steals and three blocked shots as Auburn remained unbeaten.

Ole Miss (3-0) 83, Memphis (1-1) 77: Ilias Kamardine, who played in the French Pro A league last year hit 11-14 shots including 3-4 from the 3-point line to lead Ole Miss with 26 points.

Oklahoma (2-1) 95, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-4) 69: Notre Dame transfer Tae Davis had 13 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and three steals to lead Oklahoma.

Wednesday’s games

North Florida (0-1) at No. 20 Tennessee (2-0)

Presbyterian (3-1) at South Carolina (2-0)

Eastern Kentucky (1-1) at Vanderbilt (2-0)

Minnesota (2-0) at Missouri (3-0)

Fairleigh Dickinson (0-2) at Texas (1-1)