#5/6 Florida 89, Georgia 59
Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center | Gainesville, Fla.
Records: Florida 18-2, 5-2 SEC; Georgia 15-5, 2-5 SEC
Next Up: Saturday, Feb. 1, 12 p.m., at #6 Tennessee, ESPN
Notable
* Florida turned in a complete performance, starting the game 10-for-12 from the field to jump to an early 27-13 lead 10 minutes in and never looked back. In the first half, Florida shot .667 from the field (18/27) and .500 from 3-point range (7/14) and nabbed 11 steals.
* The Florida defense showed up big with 13 steals, which helped UF earn a 23-4 fastbreak scoring edge.
* Alijah Martin scored all 17 of his points in the first half and tallied four steals, while Walter Clayton also posted 17 with five steals. Martin has scored at least 14 points in every SEC game, while Clayton extended his UF record to 43 straight games with a 3-pointer. Clayton also closed within 12 points of joining Florida’s 1,000-point club.
* Will Richard hit three 3-pointers in a three-minute span in the first half and finished the game 4-for-8 from long range with 16 points.
* Thomas Haugh posted his second career double-double with 13 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
* Alex Condon chipped in 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists while spending most of his minutes defending Georgia’s leading scorer, Asa Newell, limiting Newell to eight points on 4-for-14 shooting.
* The Gators have won 12 straight against Georgia, the longest streak in series history and tied for UF’s second-longest vs. any SEC opponent (14 vs. Tennessee, 1991-98; 12 vs. Mississippi State, 1984-89). The first six wins in the streak came with Mike White coaching the Gators and the last six under Todd Golden.
* Florida’s 18-2 record matches the team’s best through 20 games in program history, doing so on four previous occasions (2013-14, 2012-13, 2006-07, 2005-06).
* The 30-point margin was Florida’s fifth all-time win against Georgia by 30+ points and the largest since a 33-point win, 77-44, on Jan. 9, 2013. It was Florida’s fifth win this season by 30+ points.
* All-time 30-point wins vs. Georgia:
* 30, 89-59, H, 1/25/2025
* 33, 77-44, H, 1/9/2013
* 33, 96-63, H, 3/4/1967
* 32, 1/19/1963, H, 1/19/1963
* 38, 98-60, Neutral, 12/30/1958
Head Coach Todd Golden
Opening statement…
“Just super proud of our guys and our staff. I thought they did a great job preparing for this game. This is a really good Georgia team that we played. They obviously should’ve beat Auburn at home last week, been a top 25 team. The thing that I’m most happy about is that we came out with a great mentality, similar to last Saturday against Texas. What we’re trying to impress upon our team is if we bring that elite mentality and effort level in every game, especially at home, we are going to be really tough to play with. Gotta do it on the road, obviously, as well, but in these opportunities where you get good teams on your home floor, you’ve got to take advantage of that and I thought we did that today.”
On Walter Clayton Jr.’s performance and looking like things come easy to him…
“Yeah, I mean he’s a fantastic player. He does a good job playing with good pace and patience. The game, I don’t want to say it comes easy to him, but a little bit. He sees things other guys don’t, and he’s able to get to his spots. I thought he played with great poise. I thought his floor game was fantastic, five assists, one turnover. Passed up a couple shots that he turned into assists for other guys, some two-point field goals. He’s being discussed as an All-American for a reason. He deserves that conversation. One of the best guards in America and continues to deliver for us in big moments.”
On creating points off of turnovers…
“I thought our defense got us going in the first half. I thought our activity on the defensive end, we got some good run-outs, which got us going. The building came alive. Before I continue, our crowd has been absolutely amazing, especially on these weekend games. They help create such a great home court advantage for us and just the way…The energy in the building just right before tip, you can feel it and they’ve carried us in a big way at home. So, I want to say thank you to the support our players and our program are getting from the fans, especially in our home arena. To the point we were discussing about defense, we had 20 deflections in the first half, and that’s a number that we have not gotten close to in a long time. I think they had 14 turnovers in the first half, and we were just really able to open up the game because of our defensive activity.”
Sophomore F/C Alex Condon
On defending Asa Newell…
“Yeah, he was a big guy in our scout. He’d been playing pretty well, so we just tried to keep the ball out of his left hand when he was driving and make him finish with his right. I think we executed down the stretch, and Coach [Carlin] Hartman was happy with how we handled things for the rest of the game.”
Sophomore F Thomas Haugh
On creating turnovers…
“I think the guards do a great job of pressuring, A-Mart’s [Alijah Martin] insane on the ball up there, and pressing. And then we got that 1-2-2 working a little bit against South Carolina, so taking that over to this game and kind of speeding up their guards a little bit helped us a lot, just to create some turnovers and stuff.”
Grad G Alijah Martin
On the mindset coming into this game…
“The mindset was, just don’t come out slow. We’ve got a tendency of coming out slow, and tonight we weren’t going to do that. Once we got the ball rolling, we just kept it going.”
On a full week off before their next game against Tennessee…
“It’s a good thing. We can take a day or two, rest our bodies and then use the rest to prep for Tennessee. Just having a week off is good right now because we have a big stretch coming up and we’ll be fresh for it.”
