Gators Dominate Georgia, 89-59, in All-Around Effort

Four of Florida's starters scored in double figures with Thomas Haugh adding a double double off the bench.

The Florida Gators are off to one of its best starts in program history after a 30-point win over Georgia. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Todd Golden and his Florida Gators squad remain undefeated against his predecessor Mike White and the Georgia Bulldogs.

Behind a dominant offensive effort from Alijah Martin and Walter Clayton Jr., who each led all scorers with 17 points, and Will Richard, who added 15 of his own, alongside a turnover savvy defense, the No. 5 Gators on Saturday dominated Georgia , 89-59.

Golden is now 6-0 in head-to-head matchups against White and 3-0 at home. Florida also has won 12-straight against the Bulldogs. Overall, the Gators are 18-2 on the season, which is tied for its best start through 20 games in program history.

“Just super proud of our guys and our staff," Golden said. "I thought they did a great job preparing for this game. This is a really good Georgia team that we played. They obviously should have 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.

Four of Florida's five starters scored in double figures with Martin's, Clayton Jr.'s and Richard's totals along with 14 points from Alex Condon. Clayton Jr. also extended his UF record for three-point streak record to 43-straight games.

Meanwhile, Thomas Haugh notched his second double-double of the year off the bench with a 13-point and 11-rebound effort.

It was a dominate effort from the Gators immediately, too. Coming off a slow start in a one-point win over South Carolina on Wednesday, Florida jumped right out of the gate behind 11 points from Martin in the game's first five minutes.

"The mindset was just don't come out slow," Martin said. "We've got a tendency of coming out slow, and tonight, we weren't going to do that, and once we got the ball rolling, we just kept it going." 

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By the under-eight-minute media timeout in the first half, Martin and Richard had combined for 24 of Florida's 38 total points, while Georgia was held to 19. By halftime, the duo combined for 30 points, while the Bulldogs had 26 points as a team.

Defensively, Florida shut down Georgia behind a five-steal effort from Clayton Jr. The Gators forced 18 total turnovers against the Bulldogs, 14 of which came in the first half.

"We had 20 deflections in the first half, and that's a number that we have not gotten close to for a long time," Golden said. "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.”

Clayton Jr. was at the forefront of the defensive effort by with five steals of his own, while Martin had three of his own within the game's first eight minutes.

The Gators consistently took advantage with 29 points off turnovers and 23 fast break points. Clayton Jr., who also finished with five assists, took advantage in transition with a pair of assists to Haugh, including an alley oop near the 14-minute mark in the first half.

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Meanwhile, Georgia was shut down during the back half of the first half after starting off 7-for-12 shooting. However, the turnover issues combined with inconsistent shooting plagued the Bulldogs, and Gators took advantage with an 11-0 scoring run from 14:53 to 11:46 in the first half to take a 25-11 lead.

The Gators also consistently shut down star Georgia freshman forward Asa Newell, who only had eight points on 4-for-14 shooting.

"He was a big guy on our scout," Condon said. "He'd been playing pretty well, so we just tied to keep the ball out of his left hand when he was driving and make him finish with his right."

Florida eventually led 51-26 at halftime after Georgia was held to 2-for-12 shooting after its strong start. A slow second-half start put a dent in the Gators' lead with the Bulldogs going on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to 19 at the under-16-minute timeout.

Florida answered, though, with a 10-0 run and would go up by 30 off a bucket from Denzel Abderdeen near the 11-minute mark. Clayton Jr. continued to lead the way with a 10-point second half with nine more coming from Condon.

Georgia shot 12-for-35 in the second half including an 0-for-11 mark from 3-point range.

Up Next

The Gators get a week-long break from playing before traveling to Knoxville for a rematch against No. 6 Tennessee on Feb. 1. Florida upset the then-No. 1 Volunteers, 73-43, in the teams' last matchup on Jan. 7 in Gainesville. Tipoff is set for noon with television coverage on ESPN.