Florida 102, Georgia 98 (OT)
Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center | Gainesville, Fla.
Box Score<https://floridagators.com/documents/2024/1/27/UF_102__UGA_98.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 14-6, 4-3 SEC; Georgia 14-6, 4-3 SEC
Next up for Florida: at #6 Kentucky, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 8 p.m., ESPN
Notable
* Micah Handlogten posted a career-high 23 points and 17 rebounds, his third double-double of the season and second in the last three games, as the Gators won their third straight game.
* Handlogten totaled the most rebounds by a Gator since Alex Tyus had 17 vs. BYU on 3/24/2011 in the NCAA Tournament.
* It marked the first 20/15 performance by a Gator since Kerry Blackshear Jr. posted 24 points and 16 rebounds vs. Alabama on 1/4/2020.
* Zyon Pullin added 20 points and matched a season-high with eight assists, while Walter Clayton hit 4 of 9 3-pointers to add 18.
* Will Richard also tallied 18 points along with seven boards, including the Gators’ first 4-point play of the season.
* The Fairburn, Ga., native has averaged 18.7 points and 7.0 rebounds in three career games vs. Georgia.
* Florida has won nine in a row against Georgia, matching its second-longest win streak in series history.
* Todd Golden holds a 10-1 record head-to-head against the five other coaches hired in the 2022 cycle, including 10-0 in the regular season and 3-0 this season.
Head Coach Todd Golden
On getting the win, but it being too dramatic…
“Definitely. Honestly, similar to what happened on Wednesday a little bit – got a big lead, thought we played excellent for the first 30 minutes of the game, about as good as we can play probably to get up 21. There are certain things that can’t happen, that when you try to fight it happening it’s hard to overcome. Again, the human nature element a little bit, they start throwing in some shots, playing with the ultimate freedom, tighten it back up. They go press again, we beat it, and I thought we did a better job trying to stay aggressive. Too many turnovers, though. I thought we were one shot away from breaking it open in that stretch. I’ve got to give them a lot of credit for the way they fought. We had too many turnovers tonight. We had seven at halftime and ended with 19. That’s been something that’s been really good for us, the way we take care of the ball. We did not do that tonight in the second half. Against a team like Georgia that plays undersized, you’ve got to fight the 3-point line a little better – gave up 11 threes, which can flip the game. Our 2-point defense was bad in the second half. I thought they did a good job of exploiting some mismatches and driving us. A win’s a win. The great thing is, we can learn from it positively and not have a tough weekend to think about a brutal loss. It’s part of growing as a program. We’ve obviously improved over these last couple weeks. You don’t get up by 19 and 21 in these two games at home against some good teams if you’re not improving from where we were a month ago. I think the next step for our group is just pushing through and playing a full 40 regardless of the score, regardless of the situation, just staying true to what we want to do in terms of our execution, in terms of taking care of the ball, and I didn’t think we did that the last 10 minutes. But I thought we did play well in overtime. We came out after the first turnover, stayed aggressive, got out in transition, got a couple offensive rebounds. We dominated the boards – that’s why we won the game. It’s a lot easier to learn from this, being 4-3 in league and winning three in a row, for sure.”
Sophomore C Micah Handlogten
On how Georgia changed their plan mid-game…
“At least from the first half, I know that they went from showing, high-hedging to switching one-through-five. I think that kind of caught us off guard, but I think we were able to use that to our advantage in overtime, to eventually pull it out.”
On how he felt about his, and his team’s performance…
“I feel really good. I think this is just the way it goes – shout out to [Zyon Pullin] for having eight assists. The team is played as a team game. If he’s not able to find us eight times for open shots, that is at least 16 points, maybe more depending on threes. He contributed a lot. Rebounding, I think we were able to use our physicality to our advantage, plus-21 on the glass I think… Just dominated that aspect of the game.”
Grad G Zyon Pullin
On the team’s focus going into overtime…
“Just staying poised, that’s the biggest thing. We knew what we needed to correct, we needed to stay together, and just start the overtime with a fast start.
Junior G Will Richard
On holding on to a win after having a large lead…
“Winning is hard to do. Happy about the win but we know that there is a lot we can improve on to not give up a 21-point lead.”
