What Occurred
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. was the excessive scorer for Florida, however he was hardly the story of the 18th-ranked Gators’ 88-51 absolute annihilation Friday of Wichita State within the championship sport of the ESPN Occasions Invitational at State Farm Area Home. Clayton, named the event’s Most Invaluable Participant, threw in 19 factors, together with 5 3-pointers, but it surely was UF’s frighteningly environment friendly efficiency on each ends of the ground that led to one of many lopsided outcomes of this period of Florida basketball.
The Gators, in profitable their eighth consecutive sport to begin a season for the primary time since 2009, used a 27-0 run that bridged the 2 halves — 16-0 to finish the primary, 11-0 to begin the second — to show the event title sport in opposition to a beforehand unbeaten foe right into a laugher.
UF shot 44.9 % for the sport, together with 14 of 33 from the 3-point line, the place seven totally different gamers hit no less than one. On the defensive finish, a day after suffocating Wake Forest into simply 37.5 % taking pictures and 3-for-20 from deep, the Gators held the Shockers to 29.8 % (18.8 within the first half) and out-rebounded them 56-30, with a plus-13 margin on the offensive finish.
Sophomore ahead Alex Condon had 17 factors and 9 rebounds, but it surely was sophomore middle Rueben Chinyelu, the switch from Washington State, who helped ignite his group with relentless power from the opening tip on his approach to a double-double (his first as a Gator) of 14 factors and 11 rebounds to go together with 4 assists, 4 blocks and 0 turnovers.
Florida led by simply three, 21-18, inside six minutes when the Gator avalanche started. It began with an offensive rebound and putback by Condon, adopted by one other putback by Chinyelu, who about 25 seconds later took a lob from guard Will Richard about three toes above the rim and tomahawked the move by the cylinder to pressure a Shockers timeout and ship the partisan crowd right into a tizzy.
Out of the stoppage it was extra of the identical. First got here a Condon 3-pointer (he was 3-for-3 from on the market), adopted by one other alley-oop from Richard for a slam, this time to Clayton, with simply over a minute left. Two extra misses by the Shockers, who went 0-for-their-last-10 for the interval, led to a coast-to-coast pull-up jumper by Clayton and a nook 3-pointer by Alijah Martin to finish the 16-0 end-of-half onslaught and ship the Gators to the locker room up 37-18.
The second half started with 4 straight UF buckets, three of them 3s by a trio of various gamers that made the rating 48-18.
The lead grew to excessive as 48 within the second half, with WSU scoring the sport’s remaining 11 factors on six consecutive makes.
What It Means
When the flurry of weekend video games wraps, the Gators will stay amongst only a handful of unbeatens left within the nation. That quantity was 23 heading into Black Friday video games (together with Wichita State, by the way in which), with UF one among simply 13 energy convention groups (seven from the Southeastern Convention) and not using a loss. Make that three vacation event titles for the Gators since 2019 (5 since 2005), with this one representing an opportunity to ring up back-to-back victories in opposition to High 100 opponents, per KenPom.com, after a comparatively mild schedule over the season’s first three weeks.
Within the Highlight
Chinyelu does not should quantity like he did Friday, but when the 6-foot-10 1/2 submit man brings the form of power he rolled out at Disney the final two days — when he pitched in a mixed 16 factors and 20 rebounds — the Gators are going to be a really powerful out this season.
Staggering Statistic
All eight of Florida wins this season have come by double digits, with the smallest margin the 13-point win at Florida State two weeks in the past. With Friday’s 37-point distinction, the Gators’ common margin of victory this season is 22.0.
Up Subsequent
Florida (8-0) could have the remainder of Thanksgiving vacation weekend off and get again to work Monday in preparation for Wednesday’s house ACC/SEC Problem sport in opposition to Virginia at Exactech Area/O’Connell Middle. The Cavaliers (5-2), who defeated Holy Cross 67-41 at house Friday, had their program rocked mere weeks earlier than the beginning of the season when icon Coach Tony Bennett, who guided UVA to the 2019 nationwide championship, surprisingly stepped down after 15 seasons. They’ve a pair gamers again from the group that beat the Gators 73-70 in a one-off neutral-site sport at Charlotte final season.
* Electronic mail senior author Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu
