When the Gators are making threes, they're a very tough team to beat

Urban Klavzar steps back before launching a 3-pointer (Photo courtesy of UAA)

On Florida’s first possession of the game, the Ole Miss Rebels surrounded Rueben Chinyelu with four players. The result, a turnover. 

The Rebels were determined to neutralize Chinyelu, the nation’s leading rebounder and the Southeastern Conference leader in double-doubles. The strategy was effective, just one teensy problem. In paying so much attention to Chinyelu, Ole Miss left open the perimeter, which seemed like a good idea at the moment when considering the Gators came into the game shooting a rather dismal 29.4 percent from the 3-point line. 

Not every brilliantly conceived idea turns out to be a stroke of genius as Ole Miss discovered. Left open to fire away from three, the Gators launched 22 times and found the bottom of the net on half of them. Urban Klavzar, who you expect to hit his share of threes, went 4-5. Klavzar has made at least one 3-pointer in 17 consecutive games. Tommy Haugh, who has now made a three in 22 straight games, went 2-6 with a couple of gravity-defying rim-outs. 

The shockers were Boogie Fland and Alex Condon. Coming into the game, Fland was all of 17-95 shooting the 3-ball. As bad as that sounds, the percentage – 17.89 – sounds even worse. Condon came into the game 6-46 from three, having missed every three he’s taken since the Vandy game. Ole Miss left him wide open with 15:02 left in the half. He resisted the urge to pass to a teammate, launched and drained it.

So, when Fland went 3-6 from three and Condon 1-2, it was a sure sign that it was a bad day at the office for Ole Miss. Any time Condon makes a three it’s a real bonus. When Fland is making shots, the Gators become that much more complete of a team.

“We know he’s [Fland] a much better shooter than his percentages to this point of the season,” Florida coach Todd Golden said after the Gators (21-6, 12-2 SEC) put a 94-75 stomping on Ole Miss (11-16, 3-11 SEC) Oxford for their seventh consecutive win, their sixth straight road win. 

The Gators are also a much better 3-point shooting team than the percentages if you take into account the numbers in the last four games. Florida is shooting a most respectable 37.89 percent with 10 threes in wins over Georgia and Kentucky to go with Saturday’s 11, the most the Gators have made in an SEC game this season. 

Golden has been issuing subtle warnings for a couple of months now, suggesting that if the Gators ever start shooting 30 percent or better from the 3-point line they would be a very dangerous team. Well, that time has arrived and Florida is indeed very dangerous.  

The way the Gators shot the ball – 57.1 percent overall, 50 percent from three and 87 percent from the foul line – they didn’t need one of those beastly performances from Chinyelu, whose stat line read three points, six rebounds and two assists. The double-downs and triple-teaming of Chinyelu opened up the paint area for Condon, who finished with 24 points, four rebounds, six assists, a blocked shot and a steal. Condon only turned the ball over once.

“I thought he [Condon] would play incredibly poised, did a really good job of slowing down in the paint and not being in a hurry and did a really good job on his touch shots around the rim today, putting the ball in,” Golden said. “Obviously, he hit a three early, which got him going a little bit. And just, again, handled double teams, handled any kind of coverage they threw at us and really did a good job playing fast, but not in a hurry.”

When Condo wasn’t making the Rebels pay, Tommy Haugh was doing his part to shred the Ole Miss defense. His two made threes contributed to a 20-point, 9-rebound effort that he supplemented with four assists, two blocked shots and a steal. It was the 11^th time this season Haugh has scored 20 or more points. With his next point, Haugh will become the 59^th player in Florida’s 1,000-point club. 

Klavzar’s four threes were part of a 15-point effort. In SEC play, Klavzar has made 35 of his 80 3-pointers (43.75 percent). In the seven games since Florida’s last loss, Klavzar is hitting a scorching 51.35 percent of his threes (19-37). 

Despite the shooting, this wasn’t one of Florida’s more memorable games. The Gators were sloppy with the basketball, turning it over 19 times which Ole Miss converted into 24 points. Although the overall numbers were good – Ole Miss shot 41 percent overall and just 2-16 (12.5 percent) from the 3-point line – it wasn’t vintage Florida defense. With Haugh drawing the primary assignment on Ole Miss leading scorer AJ Storr, the Gators held him to eight points on 3-10 shooting overall and just 0-2 on 3-pointers. 

The Gators also did an exceptional job of running Travis Perry and Patton Pinkins off the 3-point line, to which Golden said, “We did a good job on AJ Storr. We did a really good job on Pinkins and Perry, not allowing them to get 3-point shots up.”

As expected, the Gators won the rebounding battle (39-24). While it was a +15, which is equal to Florida’s nation-leading rebound per game margin, the Gators actually lost the scoring battle in the paint, 42-38. 

Because it was Florida’s sixth consecutive road win, Golden couldn’t really complain too much. At this point of the season every win is a good one. Grinders and ugly wins count the same in the win column as those near flawless efforts. It wouldn’t be a normal day in the SEC if Golden didn’t find teaching points ahead of the next game (Wednesday night at Texas).

“We did not do good enough job taking care of the ball,” Golden said. “I thought that was an area that we can really focus on before we get to Texas and gotta clean up. We allowed them I think to score 24 points off turnovers, and that’s just not a formula for success.”

It should be noted that five of Florida’s 19 turnovers came in garbage time when the Gators were playing with five reserves on the floor.

Once again, Golden got outstanding production from the four in his backcourt rotation. In addition to Klavzar’s 15 points, Golden got another 27 points from starters Xaivian Lee (11), Boogie Fland (11) and Isaiah Brown off the bench (5). The Gators had 26 assists in 32 made baskets with Lee racking up 10. It was the first points-assists double-double by a Gator since Tyree Appleby did it against Ole Miss in 2022.

Prior to the game, the Gators were No. 9 when the NCAA released its early bracket preview. In the NCAA’s eyes, they are a No. 3 seed for the tournament, borderline No. 2. In the NCAA Net Rankings the Gators were No. 9 prior to the Ole Miss game.

The Gators maintained their 2-game lead in the Southeastern Conference standings. They have four games remaining, two at home (Arkansas and Mississippi State) and two on the road (Texas and Kentucky). Florida’s ability to win games on the road is why the Gators are leading the league and why they are almost a mortal lock to win the Southeastern Conference championship outright.

According to Golden, there is a very good reason why the Gators are so good away from the O-Dome since SEC play began.

“Our team has been very good in terms of mentally preparing on the road,” Golden said. “I think a big part of it is this group enjoys being around each other. There are obviously less distractions on the road in regards to having family around or people coming to visit, stuff like that. And I think at home, we’ve got a lot of stuff going on and it's hard to always focus completely, whereas on the road, we're pretty insulated. We keep it simple. We get here, we shoot, we go eat, we go to sleep, we wake up, and we get ready to play. And these guys have been ready since the Missouri game, in terms of competing on the road.” 

ELSEWHERE IN THE SEC

Tennessee (20-7, 10-4 SEC) 69, No. 19 Vanderbilt (21-6, 8-6 SEC) 65: The Vols outscored Vandy 5-0 in the final minute of the game to remain two games behind Florida in the SEC race. Tennessee was led by Ja’Kobi Gillespie with 17 points, and 13 by Nate Ament, whose contested jumper put the Vols ahead for good, 66-65. Vandy was led by Tyler Tanner with 16.

No. 20 Arkansas (20-7, 10-4 SEC) 94, Missouri (18-9, 8-6 SEC) 86: Arkansas stayed within two games of SEC leader Florida as Billy Richmond scored 21 and Darius Acuff Jr. 20 to lead the Razorbacks past Missouri. Mark Mitchell scored 26 to lead Missouri.

No. 25 Alabama (20-7, 10-4 SEC) 90, LSU (14-13, 2-12 SEC) 83: Like Tennessee and Arkansas, Alabama won to remain two games behind the Gators. Aden Holloway (17) and Amari Allen (16) led Alabama while Marquel Sutton scored 21 for LSU, which has lost its last four games.

Texas A&M (19-8, 9-5 SEC) 75, Oklahoma (13-14, 3-11 SEC) 71: Rylan Griffen made two free throws with eight seconds remaining as Texas A&M withstood a furious Oklahoma rally for its ninth SEC win of the season. The win ensures the Aggies will finish with no worse than a .500 record in SEC play. Rashaun Agee scored 17 to lead A&M while Dayton Forsythe led Oklahoma with 14.

Georgia (19-8, 7-7 SEC) 91, Texas (17-10, 8-6 SEC) 80: The Bulldogs won their second straight game to even their SEC record at 7-7. Georgia had one of its best shooting games of the season, hitting 11-20 3-point shots with Kanon Catchings, Smurf Millender and Jeremiah Wilkinson hitting three apiece. Wilkinson led the scoring for Georgia with 19. Matas Voketaitis scored 22 to lead Texas.

Auburn (15-12, 6-8 SEC) 75, Kentucky (17-10, 8-6 SEC) 74: Elyiah Freeman’s tip in with 1.1 seconds remaining was the game-winner for Auburn, which broke a 5-game losing streak. Keyshawn Murphy, who grabbed 10 rebounds for Auburn, scored 17 of his 25 points in the second half. Otega Oweh led Kentucky with a career-high 29.

South Carolina (12-15, 3-11 SEC) 97, Mississippi State (13-14, 5-9 SEC) 89: South Carolina held Josh Hubbard to 4-20 shooting overall and just 2-12 from the 3-point line. Hubbard hit 10 threes and scored 46 points in his previous game. South Carolina hit 12-24 of its 3-point shots. Meechie Johnson and Mike Sharavjamts each scored 21 to lead the Gamecocks. Quincy Ballard scored 15 for Mississippi State.