Coleman Coliseum | Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Box Score<https://floridagators.com/documents/2024/2/21/2024.02.21_Florida_at_Alabama.PDF> | Season Stats<https://floridagators.com/documents/2023/11/17/2023-24_UFStats.pdf> | Media Resources<https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iv6cc1nl98a49pv/AAD_LkZm6hKvVz7FpyboOUR1a?dl=0>
Records: Florida 18-8, 8-5 SEC; Alabama 19-7, 11-2 SEC
Next up for Florida: Vanderbilt, Saturday, Feb. 24, 1 p.m., SEC Network
Notable
* Walter Clayton led the Gators with 27 points, his fourth straight 20-point game and 10th of the season.
* Florida played its fourth overtime game of the season, falling to 3-1 in extra sessions.
* Will Richard and Zyon Pullin added 17 points each, while Tyrese Samuel scored 14 and Alex Condon added 10 off the bench.
* Micah Handlogten grabbed a game-high 13 boards, his sixth double-figure rebounding performance of the season.
* Pullin scored in double figures for the 23rd consecutive game, tying Udonis Haslem and Kenny Boynton for the third-longest double-figure scoring streak by a Gator since 1996-97 (Anthony Roberson 29, Colin Castleton 24).
* UF committed just nine turnovers, marking single-digit turnovers in seven of its last nine games.
* Florida recorded its fifth 20-assist game of the season with six players recording multiple assists, led by Pullin’s six.
Head Coach Todd Golden
Opening statement…
“Obviously a disappointing result for us. For the majority of the game, we played pretty well. To come in here against a top-five team analytically and to be in the lead for 30 minutes, I think, says a lot about the growth of our program and where we’ve come over the last couple months. We’re playing like one of the best teams in America right now. I’m disappointed about the outcome. I thought there were some 50-50 things down the stretch that didn’t go our way…But in a tight game like that, there’s going to be some situations like that that you’ve got to power through. I didn’t think we played great at the beginning of overtime, and we just weren’t able to dig ourselves out of that hole. We got a couple looks to tie it, and I’m disappointed in the result but I’m definitely not discouraged in our effort. As I told my team right before we came in here, I’m excited to get back to work with them tomorrow. I think we have a chance to have a really special end of the year. Even though we came up short tonight, I think our effort indicates that.”
On Alabama’s ability to neutralize Florida’s rebounding advantage…
“We offensive rebounded very well. We got 17 of our 50 misses back, about 34 percent. I’ll take that. We did not do a good job on the defensive glass. I thought Alabama, who’s a sneaky really good offensive rebounding team for a team that plays downsized for the majority of the game. I thought they did a really good job early. I didn’t think we checked out well enough, and then late their length and…whether we blocked out well enough to deserve a call or not, I’m not sure. We’ll go back and look. But early on we didn’t do a good enough job keeping them off the glass, and that was a big emphasis for us. So the fact that we got outrebounded the way we did in this game was disappointing.”
Junior G Walter Clayton Jr.
On his ability to score from multiple levels tonight…
“Just getting into the paint a little bit, their bigs weren’t really helping so one-on-one layups with guards. And then my teammates were finding me for open 3s.”
