[gatortalk] Re: [gatornews] [FG]: two men’s basketball articles

Gaudy? Gaudi?

-Zeb is

On Feb 16, 2025, at 1:26 PM, Shane Ford <goufgators01@gmail.com> wrote:



GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At halftime, his team had a measly four-point lead, at home, against a Southeastern Conference opponent looking for its first win in league play. Todd Golden, with injuries forcing a third different starting lineup in four games, didn't waste any time talking about adjustments to the rotation or the defense or anything else. No, his message was simple. 

"We needed to play harder," Golden said. 

And harder they did. Immediately, in fact. Florida started the second half with a 3-pointer from junior guard Denzel Aberdeen, then got another a minute later from sophomore forward Thomas Haugh to take the lead to double digits. The two buckets were harbingers of things to come for both players, but also for the third-ranked Gators, who used a deadly efficient second half to run the South Carolina Gamecocks out of Exactech Arena for an 88-67 victory before a sellout crowd Saturday night. 

Both Aberdeen and Haugh threw in career-best scoring totals. Aberdeen dropped 22 points and bombed a career-high five 3s to go with three assists and no turnovers in 30 minutes. Haugh finished with 20 points, six rebounds, three assists and a steal. The Gators (22-3, 9-3), in winning their fourth straight, shot 70.4 percent in the second half, including eight of 14 from distance (57.1 percent) and put 51 points on the board for the period, while defending the Gamecocks (10-15, 0-12) at 35.7 percent.

Sophomore forward Thomas Haugh (10) is fouled by Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk (31) throwing in a first-half finger roll. 

Senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. had 10 points, four rebounds and eight of the team's 24 assists, the most for the squad in conference play this season. Sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu had 10 points and six rebounds. UF finished with a 26-7 edge in fastbreak points. 

"Coach Golden came in and said we had to pick it up," Aberdeen said of the intermission conversation. "We were playing slow and sluggish on offense and defense. We came out in the second half hitting [shots] and doing what we had to do on defense to open up our offense."

Yeah, it took a rocky 20 minutes to figure some stuff out, but maybe that was understandable given the ins and outs of the UF roster of late. As of just weeks ago, Aberdeen had never started a college game. This was his fourth start, having replaced senior Clayton (ankle) for one game, then fifth-year Alijah Martin (hip pointer) for the ensuing three. And Haugh? He made his first career start Saturday night because sophomore forward Alex Condon went down with an ankle injury Tuesday at Mississippi State, as did backup forward Sam Alexis. 

So two starters were on the floor who weren't in the first unit two weeks ago. 

But there was more newness to the mix.

Roll 7-foot-1 Micah Handlogten into the equation, also. Handlogten, who had not played since suffering a broken leg last March 17 in the SEC Tournament, decided on Friday to forgo his medical redshirt year and take the floor with his undermanned team. 

Gators coach Todd Golden liked what he got from his team in the second half.

That's a lot of moving parts, but they all moved pretty well after Golden's halftime prodding. Right out of the gate, in fact. 

The 12-1 start to the period was not unlike the way the Gators rocketed out of the locker room the previous two games: 20-9 in taking control at No. 1 Auburn and 15-0 out of the gate to overtake and overwhelm Mississippi State, both on the road. 

"Their second-half numbers were gawdy," South Carolina coach Lamont Paris said.
 
The Gators were at their gawdiest from the 14:56 mark (when they led by nine) to 11:21. The scoring over those three minutes, 25 seconds looked like this: 

• Aberdeen 3
• Martin 3
• Aberdeen 3
• Aberdeen 3
• South Carolina layup
• Haugh 3

The 15-2 Florida run -- on five consecutive daggers from deep -- sent the home team up by 22 and the O'Dome into delirium.

"I thought in the first half we were a little jumbled," Golden said, acknowledging the new starting lineup, the return of Martin and addition of Handlogten took some getting used to. "We needed to pour more into who we are;  less about adjustments and trying solve whatever problems, more of just getting back to who we were. I thought we did a good job of that in the second half."

Along the way, the Gators turned Martin loose, in his first game in 11 days, for 11 points, three assists and a couple steals over 24 minutes. Handlogten, who took the court to a stirring ovation just over four minutes into the game, played nearly 20 minutes and finished with two points, three rebounds, a career-high five assists, two blocks and about a hundred smiles. 

"It was surreal, the stuff you dream about," Handlogten said of his emotional return. "My first game in 11 months, you don't really know what you're going to get."

Micah Handlogten goes up in traffic for his only basket (and shot) of the game.

In the end, Handlogten and the Gators figured some things out and got a victory by piecing and finding their way through this mini-midseason makeover.

"We'll get through it," Haugh said. 

Yeah, they probably will. During the Florida four-game winning streak, despite the injuries and uneven rotations, UF has combined to shoot 53.2 percent from the floor, 43.2 from the arc, collected 85 assists and made 51 3s. The Gators are playing some of their best basketball of the season. 

"I feel like we have a really good understanding, collectively, of what we're looking for on offense," Golden said.
 
How many games they'll be without Condon, the team's No. 3 score and leading rebounder, will be a lead storyline down the season's stretch. In the meantime, Golden's line to his team will be about playing to its identity. As in playing hard.

For two halves. 

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu
 

What Happened

GAINESVILLE, Fla.  – Junior guard Denzel Aberdeen and sophomore forward Thomas Haugh each had career-best scoring nights to lead the third-ranked and short-handed Florida Gators to an 88-67 victory over South Carolina in their Southeastern Conference game Saturday night at sold-out Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. 

Aberdeen, making his fourth consecutive start, scored 22 points by hitting eight of 12 shots from the floor and dropping a career-high five 3s on seven attempts over 30 minutes. Haugh, making his first career start with forward Alex Condon sidelined by an ankle injury suffered early in Tuesday night's win at Mississippi State, finished with 20 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Senior point guard Walter Clayton Jr. had 10 points, four rebounds and eight assists, while sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu posted his second straight double-figure scoring game of 10 points to go with six rebounds.

The win was UF's fourth straight.

The Gators had to shake a sub-standard first half -- they led by just four at intermission against a Gamecocks team that was winless in SEC play -- by shooting 70.4 percent and dropping eight 3s after intermission. They did it minus Condon and backup forward Sam Alexis (ankle), but welcomed fifth-year guardAlijah Martin back into the rotation after he missed the previous two games with a hip pointer, and 7-foot-1 center Micah Handlogten in his first action since breaking his leg last March 17 in the SEC Tournament. Martin, the team's second-leading scorer, finished with 11 points and three assists in 24 minutes. Handlogten had two points, three rebounds, a career-high five assists, two steals and two blocks in 20 minutes. 

Both teams were red-hot to start, with the Gamecocks at 75 percent through the first 12-plus minutes and the Gators at 65 percent. USC led 31-30 inside five minutes to go, but UF scored seven of the last nine points of the period to take a 37-33 lead into halftime. 

The second-half blowout was instantaneous. UF hit back-to-back 3s to start to go up by double digits and led by 15 at the first media timeout. USC scored six straight points to cut the lead to nine, but Florida's answer was five consecutive 3s; three by Aberdeen and one each from Martin and Haugh. The lead was 22 and got as high as 25, thanks to making 19 of 27 in the period and eight of 14 (57 percent) from the arc.

UF forward Thomas Haugh (10) launches a 3-pointer Saturday night.

What it Means

Earlier Saturday, the NCAA's bracket reveal put the Gators as the fourth No. 1 seed in the 68-team tournament field, one of three SEC teams (along with Auburn and Alabama) assigned 1-seeds. For that to happen, Florida needs to stack wins -- like this one -- in the home stretch of the season, starting with this four-game run against the bottom four teams in the league. One down (South Carolina), three to go (Oklahoma, at LSU, at Georgia). Doing so minus Condon, the team's best "big" (for however long that might be), won't be easy, but that's where the Gators are. As far as their place in the SEC standings, UF sits in a two-way tie for third place (with Texas A&M), one game behind second-place Auburn, two behind front-running Auburn.   

In the Spotlight

Imagine Micah's emotions the last two days. 

Staggering Statistic

Florida has 85 assists and 51 made 3-pointers over the last four games. Those are truly staggeringly efficient numbers. 

Up Next

Florida (22-3, 9-3) is back home for a second straight game Tuesday night when the Gators face Oklahoma (16-9, 3-9). The Sooners were beaten 82-79 earlier Saturday at home by LSU, which got just its second conference win. The Gamecocks' (10-15, 0-12) will look for their first league win Tuesday at Baton Rouge.    

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu

Chris joined FloridaGators.com in 2011 after nearly three decades as a sports reporter at newspapers in Tampa and Orlando, including 10 years covering the UF athletic program and another 10 covering the NFL.

Sent from Shane's iPhone

Go Gators! 

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GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY!
1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions |
Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007)
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