
Florida broke out of a mild shooting slump in a big way Saturday in its 81-60 win over Baylor in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge.
But afterward, Florida coach Mike White was as encouraged with the defensive effort.
“We didn’t put 40 (minutes) together, but it’s probably as good a defensive performance as we’ve played, against a very talented offensive team that executes really well,” White said.
Before 10,623 fans at the O’Connell Center, the No. 20 Gators (15-6, 6-2 SEC) brought energy on defense early and maintained it throughout the game, holding Baylor to 40-percent shooting from the floor and 20-percent shooting (3-15) from 3-point range. Junior center Kevarrius Hayes had five of UF’s six blocked shots, while junior guard Jalen Hudson had three of UFs’ 10 steals. The Gators turned defense into offense as well, scoring 20 points off 15 Baylor turnovers.
Senior point guard Chris Chiozza carried the Gators in another dynamic performance, finishing with a team-high 20 points, six rebounds and six assists to just one turnover. Chiozza also helped get Baylor’s best player, senior point guard Manu Lecomte in foul trouble. Lecomte picked up three fouls in the first half and had 10 points and two assists in 29 minutes on the floor.
Lecomte entered the game leading Baylor in scoring (16.6 ppg) and 3-point field goal percentage (39.2 percent)
“Anytime you are playing a good player, you come out there with a different urgency,” Chiozza said. “Especially at this stage, you don’t want to get embarrassed. I just came out and I try to play hard every game, but when you face another good lead guard, you gotta come out there with something extra.’
Hudson scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half for the Gators, while Egor Koulechov scored 16 points. The Gators made 14 3-pointers, their most since sinking 17 on Jan. 2 at Texas A&M, and shot 56 percent (14-25) from beyond the arc.
Florida may have been due for a big shooting day. The Gators were 12 for their last 53 from 3-point range in their prior two games against South Carolina and Kentucky.
“We have good outside shooters,” Chiozza said. “Shots are not going to fall every game, but we’re never going to stop shooting.”
Koulechov was the hot hand early, making his first three 3-point attempts to help the Gators jump to a 14-5 lead.
“When we shoot the ball like that, it’s hard to beat us with the crowd going at home,” Koulechov said. “We defended a lot better today than we did the other day against South Carolina.”
After Baylor cut Florida’s lead to 24-15 with 9:40 left in the first half, Chiozza went on his own flurry, scoring 13 straight points during a 13-5 run. A 3-pointer by Chiozza with 4:52 left in the first half put the Gators up 37-22.
Lecomte picked up his second foul with 12:49 remaining, but with the Gators up by double digits early, Baylor coach Scott Drew took a chance and brought the 5-foot-11 guard back into the game with 7:18 left. The Gators then attacked inside and with 3:48 left drew Lecomte’s third foul by posting up Koulechov against him.
“That was big,” White said. “The more he sat on the bench, the better off we were going to be.”
Said Drew: “I thought he did a great job playing with foul trouble. I told the three officials unless you want to play point guard you better keep him in.”
Baylor cut Florida’s lead to 40-31 with 1:22 left in the first half on an inside layup by guard Mark Vital, but Florida junior guard KeVaughn Allen hit a big shot to close the half, a fall-away 3-pointer to put Florida up 43-31 at halftime. It capped a half in which the Gators shot 58.3 percent from the floor and 75 percent (9-12) from 3-point range.
In the second half, Baylor cut Florida’s lead to 58-48 on an inside jumper by Terry Maston with 10:40 left. But then, Hudson went on his own scoring binge, scoring 10 straight points during a 10-2 run to put Florida up 68-50.
From there, Florida extended its lead by as many as 24 points. Maston led Baylor (12-9) with 15 points, with Vital adding 11 points and Lecomte scoring 10 points. The Bears suffered their third straight loss.
“We knew they could shoot the 3,” Drew said. “We tried to take away the 3 and didn’t do a good enough job. Again players make plays. They’ve got some guards that made plays and you are not going to beat anybody when they shoot 14 for 25 very often. So really credit them for taking advantage of that. We tried to get the ball inside more and weren’t as effective as we wanted to be.”
No. 20 FLORIDA 81, BAYLOR 60 |
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BAYLOR (12-9) |
Vital 5-11 1-2 11, Lual-Acuil 4-7 1-1 9, Clark 3-3 1-1 7, Lecomte 4-8 0-0 10, McClure 0-5 1-2 1, Maston 5-10 4-4 14, Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Omot 1-7 0-0 2, Lindsey 0-2 0-0 0, Jolly 2-7 1-2 6. Totals 24-60 9-12 60.
FLORIDA (15-6) |
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Stone 3-6 2-2 9, Hayes 2-3 1-1 5, Koulechov 5-6 3-5 16, Chiozza 7-10 2-3 20, K.Allen 3-8 2-2 10, Bassett 0-0 1-2 1, Gak 1-1 0-0 2, Hudson 6-13 1-5 17, Okauru 0-2 0-0 0, Krause 0-0 0-0 0, Ballard 0-2 1-2 1, Fava 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-52 13-22 81.
Halftime_Florida 43-31. 3-Point Goals_Baylor 3-15 (Lecomte 2-5, Jolly 1-2, Lual-Acuil 0-1, Omot 0-3, McClure 0-4), Florida 14-25 (Hudson 4-6, Chiozza 4-7, Koulechov 3-3, K.Allen 2-4, Stone 1-3, Okauru 0-1, Ballard 0-1). Fouled Out_None. Rebounds_Baylor 35 (Jolly 7), Florida 27 (Koulechov 8). Assists_Baylor 13 (Omot, Lindsey 3), Florida 12 (Chiozza 6). Total Fouls_Baylor 19, Florida 15.
Up next
Who: No. 20 Florida vs. Georgia
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Stegeman Coliseum, Athens, Ga.
TV: SEC Network
Radio: 103.7-FM, AM-850
That was the effort that could get this team to the elite 8. Enjoy the journey!! Go Gators!!!
Great effort, Gators! (For most of the game) = ‘W’! S.E.C.! S.E.C.! S.E.C.!
Yep, now they think they’re almost unbeatable — again. Watch ’em go to Athens Tuesday and get smacked. Seed makes no difference in the Dance — they will be one and good-bye.
Kinda like the age of the kids you molest don’t matter to you. When you hide behind a computer, you can be a lot tougher. Go Gators!
Hey Mikey:
I found a Dr. Sharon Winters in Daytona. She’s a highly regarded Psychiatrist. Your Mom perhaps? Anyhow, seek treatment. You can thank me later.
And yet you come here… after EVERY GAME, why? Oh, I know, ’cause you’re a BUTT F…! And I’lll say to your face!
You expert “analysis” on another thread all but guaranteed am L to Baylor…LMAO. Go to bed son.
Mike: Aren’t you late for the bake sale for Francois legal defense?
fb(mikey) how many people in your family have died right after saying,
“Hey, watch this” ?
Nice/needed win, but like I pointed out after Weds loss to SC, where is K. Allen this year? He continues to throw up bricks, drives the lane out-of-control, drives the baseline out of control, throwing up a rock, charging into the defense, or turns the ball over. Can’t understand why he’s a starter, I would start Hudson over him.
Definitely! Makes no sense that your leading scorer doesn’t start!
He’s starting because he can run the offense and handle the ball in the backcourt better. I just wish that whatever he did for the Arkansas game, he could just halfway repeat it. It seems like he’s still getting down in himself after a couple of misses, and maybe makes him force himself into bad situations.
Chiozza runs the offense and handles the ball, Allen stinks this year, his turnovers, ball handling and poor shooting do more harm than the occasional 3 pointer
Oh wow, they’re back to being one of the country’s best! Go ahead and gloat, Gator fans, gloat right up until Tuesday evening when they go to Georgia and lay down like a little b•••h. The leading scorer doesn’t even start on this juggernaut. With the importance of threes in college bb, Hudson should be taking 30% of the team’s shots but coach Michelle White brings him off the bench. Betya that White voted for Al-Hussein Obama and Hillary.
Is it true you let your twelve-year-old daughter smoke at the
dinner table in front of her kids?
Pure joy today when Virginia (3-star players on the roster but no 4-or-5 stars, unless maybe Guy is a 4) goes to God’s House (aka Cameron Indoor) and punks Duke. Kyle Guy, giving that elbow to Grayson Allen’s chin late in the game sealed it for me. Notice how much better Guy is without the bun?
I remember just last year when we shredded that UVA team in the Dance…
Your Best Friend-
You don’t really believe the Gators could beat this Virginia team, do you?!
Said Drew (baylor’s coach)“I thought he did a great job playing with foul trouble. I told the three officials unless you want to play point guard you better keep him in.”
WHAT?…. What do the OFFICIALS have to do with Baylor’s point guard being in the game except whether they call his fouls! So their coach was telling the ref’s to cheat and not call fouls on their point guard!
Why does nobody have a problem with this? The writer nor commenters even mentioned it!
Begging for calls is an art form, Drew needs to polish his technique. That stuff happens all the time, but usually coaches don’t spell it out in the presser.
Awh awh, another Barauq Hussein and Hillary Clinton supporter, this daz wazlle character.
I never seen a team that has a better shooting percentage from behind the arc than in the paint
It’s too bad that this team doesn’t play with the same energy and ‘urgency’ every game. If they did, they would be almost unstoppable. I’m sure they’ll go back to the unfocused, unenergetic team we all know when they play UGA this week.
Please, I don’t want to rain in our parade by any means. We did play a better defensive Game overall, but don’t let it go to our head like we did after beating Kentucky. Baylor is not a “3” shooting, their season average is only .35% and neither do they have a dominant center, so it made it easier for us to cover the whole floor. When we beat Kentucky, their “3’s” were none existent and they didn’t play like they are able to. Stay grounded Gators!, and let’s go to Athens next week and beat the tar out of them Dogs!!!!
Boyfriend:
Three different names in this comment thread aloneness?
Boyfriend, call Dr Winters.