Gators Down Oklahoma in First Meeting as SEC Foes

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- No. 2 Florida Gators on Tuesday dominated the Oklahoma Sooners, 85-63 in the programs' first meeting as SEC opponents, extending Florida's win streak to five games.

Five players scored in double-figures for Florida for the fourth-straight game, a first since 1996, which included an 18-point effort from Walter Clayton Jr. and a 14-point, eight-rebound effort from Will Richard.

"Just again, incredibly proud of our team," head coach Todd Golden said. "I thought we did a really good job of being pretty systematic with our effort tonight. After the first four minutes I thought we played really well, sharing the ball, shot the ball really well in the first half, defended at a very good level, which we needed to do."

Six-straight 3-point makes in the middle of the first half, including two from Richard, sparked Florida to a large first-half lead that Oklahoma couldn't come back from. It didn't start pretty for the Gators, though.

Florida shot a combined 0-for-4 from deep until a 3-pointers from Will Richard and Walter Clayton Jr. tied the game, 6-6. From there, Florida shined by making eight of their next 11 shots from beyond the arc, including six-straight late in the first half.

Clayton Jr. sparked things with his second 3-pointer to put Florida up 15-8 at the under-12 media timeout. Urban Klavzar, who has now hit a 3-pointer in five-straight games and scored 10 points in the win, and Denzel Aberdeen hit back-to-back shots from 3-point territory to put the Gators up by 12 points four minutes later.

Alijah Martin and Richard, who hit the last two in-a-row, combined to make three-straight shots from deep, which gave Florida a 20-point lead with five minutes to go in the half. Clayton Jr. added a deep step-back 3-pointer to give Florida an 18-point lead before missing another to end the run.

"Just, when you walk into the gym and you see a guy hitting eight, nine threes in a row, you know, or whatever they're working out, you know, they put confidence in you to have confidence in them to be able to shoot the ball," Clayton Jr. said. "So, we all got confidence in each other."

Martin, who recently returned after missing multiple games with a hip pointer, sparked Florida with five points to open the second half. A 3-pointer to give Florida a 51-31 lead ended a drought of six-straight missed 3-point attempts for the Gators.

"Tonight, it felt like old school A-Mart out there. He was just aggressive," Golden said. "I thought he was really good defensively. He got five defensive rebounds, good floor game, two steals, like, he did it all. He played really, really well.”

Another 3-pointer by Clayton Jr. with six minutes into the second half gave the Gators a 21-point lead, and Florida would not trail by less than that mark the rest of the way.

Defensively, the Gators completely stifled Oklahoma by holding the Sooners to a 38.8 percent mark from the field, which included a 26 percent mark in the first half that was too much for the Sooners to overcome.

Florida also took advantage of turnovers by the Sooners with 18 points off 13 turnovers, highlighted by an alley-oop from Martin to Rueben Chinyelu put the Gators up over Oklahoma by 14 points in the first half.

Meanwhile, Florida didn't record a turnover until there was 3:58 left in the first half. Florida's six total turnovers tied a season-low and was its lowest in SEC play.

“I thought we kept it simple for the most part," Golden said. "We didn't put ourselves in precarious situations. We made the simple play and got off the ball pretty well for the most part. Let our teammate or the next guy make it, make the play. And, just kind of took what the defense gave us."

STEAL ➡️ ALLEY OOP

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Gators 28 | Sooners 14 pic.twitter.com/S3jtutgg7C
— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) February 19, 2025

Next Up

The Gators hit the road on Saturday for a matchup at LSU. Tipoff from Baton Rouge is at 6 p.m. ET with television coverage on SEC Network