No. 21 Florida Gators grind out an 81-60 win over Jacksonville

Alex Condon (21) puts the ball on the deck on his way to the basket in the second half against JU (UAA Photo)

Although he saw improvement from Monday night’s season opener with South Florida, particularly at the defensive end of the floor, Todd Golden knows the Gators are capable of playing much better than they did Thursday night when they took out Jacksonville, 81-60, before an announced crowd of 8,381 at the O-Dome.

The Gators (2-0) scored an easy 15-point win over South Florida but they gave up way too many points in transition and gave up 13-27 from the 3-point line. The Gators were much better in both those categories against JU, but they didn’t rebound particularly well and for the second straight game the consistency wasn’t there from the 3-point line.

Defensively, the Gators allowed only two fast break points and they held the Dolphins to a 7-24 night shooting (29.2 percent) from the 3-point line, both significant improvements. The Gators forced 18 Jacksonville turnovers, converting them into 24 points. Florida Atlantic transfer Alijah Martin had six steals, bringing his total to 10 in two games. The Gators blocked 10 Jacksonville shots with Chattanooga transfer Sam Alexis leading the way with four.

That was the good news. The bad news was Jacksonville outrebounded the Gators 40-30 for a 16-14 advantage in second chance points. After a 5-25 effort from the 3-point line against South Florida, it was hoped that the familiar rims of the O-Dome would yield a far better night but instead the Gators matched Jacksonville’s 29.2 percent (7-24).

“I think fundamentally we're not great right now,” Golden said about the rebounding issues. “You know, part of it is, I would say, a little bit of a combination of just probably being a little too amped up, you know, and just trying to go run and chase down the ball as opposed to hitting bodies ... We had a couple where we were sprinting in for the rebound, ball went overhead. You know, stuff like that we’ve got to eliminate. We’ve got to get better that way, but it’s definitely an area that we have not been as good as we need to be, so it gives us something to continue to work on over the course of  the weekend going into Monday’s game against Grambling.”

Alexis led the Gators with seven rebounds to go with his 10 points, four blocks and a steal. Washington State transfer Rueben Chinyelu had six points, six rebounds, an assist and a blocked shot.

In addition to his six steals. Martin hit 3-6 from the 3-point line, finishing with 15 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Will Richard also turned in a strong all-around game with 11 points, five rebounds, three assists, a blocked shot and three steals.

Although he led the Gators with a career-high 23 points (7-7 from the field overall, 2-2 from the 3-point line, 7-12 from the foul line), Alex Condon grabbed only one rebound and blocked two shots. The single rebound was a sore spot of contention for the sophomore from Australia.

“It was a weird game for me because I didn't really rebound,” Condon said. “I’ve just been more confident in my three. I’ve been shooting a little more at practice recently, so I’m just getting more confident with that ... I know if this team is to be good, I’ve got to be in there rebounding, so it’s something that I’m going to focus on next week for sure.”

Fortunately for the Gators, neither a great night rebounding nor a lights out effort shooting the three were necessary. The Gators hit 23-33 of their 2-point shots. Through their two games, the Gators are only 12-49 (24.5 percent) on threes but they are 51-71 (71.8 percent) on their twos.

This was a grind it out game for the Gators, who are ranked No. 21 nationally. They played tough defensively and they moved the ball particularly well. Walter Clayton Jr., who lit up South Florida for 29 points in game one, rarely took a shot against Jacksonville. He focused on getting teammates involved, finishing the night with nine points, two rebounds, seven assists and a blocked shot. He turned the ball over just one time. Clayton has 10 assists and just three turnovers in the two games so far.

“Obviously, [he] didn't take a lot of shots tonight, only eight field goal attempts, but he played within himself,” Golden said. “I thought he did a really good job of kind of reading the game and finding different guys. He was definitely playing as more of a facilitator tonight, which was fine.

“I thought there were, like I said, a couple of threes he could have taken that we would have preferred to take, but the 7-1 assist-turnover, obviously, really, really good floor game. And we have been really good taking care of the ball so far in four contests [two games that count, two exhibition games], so hopefully we can continue that.”

Jacksonville hung with the Gators for the first 10 minutes, but an Alexis dunk after a spectacular pass from Clayton put Florida up 25-21 and from there the margin grew, reaching double figures on a pair of Martin free throws with 8:53 left that made it 34-23.

A 3-pointer by Martin with 5:45 left in the first half gave the Gators a 39-25 lead. The Gators didn’t score again until two minutes later when Martin banked in a 3-pointer that put the Gators up 42-28. Martin also scored the final points of the first half on a fast break dunk finish after a steal that gave the Gators a 16-point lead that held for more than a minute before the Dolphins scored to cut the deficit to 46-32 at the half.

The second half was pretty much a repeat of the first. The Gators continued to get nearly any shot they wanted inside the 3-point line, although they did slack off a bit on threes. The Gators led by 20 for the first time with 16:28 left in the game on a Condon free throw. The first of Condon’s two 3-pointers went down at the 7:46 mark to put Florida ahead 72-48. Condon's second three with 6:06 left made it a 25-point game.

The second of two second half dunks by Clayton with 2:32 left gave the Gators a 27-point lead at 81-54.

It was a good but unspectacular win for the Gators. With a little more experience playing together this season and a better level of competition, this team should get much, much better. The Gators are very capable of scoring from the perimeter, and the inside foursome of Condon, Chinyelu, Alexis and Thomas Haugh should put up good numbers offensively and on the backboards.

“We've been very efficient from two so far this year,” Golden said. “I guess today we were really good again from two, and that's got to be a calling card for us, but usually that goes with the glass. So, you know, some really positive with the 2-point percentage, but, you know, the negatives are the glass right now.”

SEC Basketball

Today's games

Grambling (1-0) at Ole Miss (1-0)

South Carolina State (1-0) at South Carolina (0-1)

Georgia State (1-0) at Mississippi State (1-0)

Arkansas State (1-0) at No. 2 Alabama (1-0)

Texas A&M-Commerce (0-1) at No. 13 Texas A&M (0-1)

Houston Christian (1-0) at No. 19 Texas (0-1)

Howard (0-1) at Missouri (0-1)

Saturday’s games

No. 12 Tennessee (1-0) at Louisville (1-0)

Bucknell (1-0) at No. 23 Kentucky (1-0)

No. 8 Baylor (0-1) at No. 16 Arkansas (1-0)

No. 11 Auburn (1-0) at No. 4 Houston (1-0)

Sunday’s games

Southeast Missouri State (0-1) at Vanderbilt (1-0)

Texas Southern (1-1) at Georgia (1-0)