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No. 17 Florida – Texas A&M Box Score
O&B Board: No. 17 Florida – Texas A&M Game Thread
BOX SCORE
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Notes & quotes courtesy Florida Sports Information
QUOTABLE
Head Coach Todd Golden
Opening Statement…
“Incredibly proud of my team. This was a great environment tonight, and two teams that have played really, really well playing for pole position in this league. I thought our guys did a great job for 40 minutes defending, rebounding, taking care of the ball, and playing with great poise. Led to a commanding victory.”
On holding Texas A&M scoreless for nearly 10 straight minutes early in the game…
“I thought our guys did an incredible job of being on the scouting report. Obviously A&M has some lethal shooters and some really aggressive, physical drivers, and our guys did a really good job of understanding that personnel. When they start that way, there’s a little luck involved in that, also. But I think big-picture-wise, our guys did a really good job of getting them to take the shots that we wanted them to take. And once they missed a few, I thought it snowballed a little bit. Second half, we obviously didn’t defend nearly as well, Gave up three times as many points as we did in the first, but we got off to a great start that way.”
On how the team handled the pressure…
“I thought we did a great job. We had nine turnovers. A couple early (were) a little fluky. I think we had four turnovers in the first six or seven minutes of the game and then five the rest. Our ability to not only take care of the ball, but really advance it and attack in transition led to a lot of runouts and dunks for us in the second half. And I thought our guys did a really good job of playing fast, but not in a hurry.”
On the halftime message and the strong start to the second half…
“I thought we played well in the first half and we knew that we were going to get their best shot coming out at halftime. And again, it was the same story as the first half, got to make sure we don’t let their 3-point shooters get off. We’ve got to make sure we take care of the basketball. The message at halftime was we did a really poor job rebounding in the first half. We were minus-2 overall, and I thought we were not as physical as we needed to be that way. We obviously defended well in the first half. We took care of the ball well enough in the first half, but we really challenged our guys to do a better job rebounding in the second half, and we did that. We were plus-9 on the boards in the second half.”
Sophomore G Isaiah Brown
On what it took to win…
“It takes a lot to come in here calm and collected, knowing we’re going to make mistakes, but also knowing we’re going to execute the plan. That was the approach.”
On getting out-rebounded in the first half…
“That’s not normal for us to get punked on the glass like that. Second half, though, we turned the tables.”
Junior F Thomas Haugh
On having nine turnovers vs. Texas A&M’s pressure…
“Great game plan. I think we executed it to perfection and were able to go out there and do what the coaches want us to do. Led to a W.”
On Isaiah Brown…
“He had an amazing game, especially with his cuts to the basket. He’s turning into the player we all knew he was.”
NOTEABLE
- Thomas Haugh’s 22 points led five Gators in double figures as Florida’s stellar defensive first half led to a dominant win in which Florida led by double digits for the final 26 minutes.
- Florida limited Texas A&M to a 1-for-27 start from the field, including 23 straight misses and 0-for-12 from 3-point range.
- The Aggies’ 19 points in the first half were the second-fewest allowed by UF in a half this season (17 vs. Merrimack, first half).
- The Gators went on an extended 24-8 run to open the second half, leading by as many as 28.
- Rueben Chinyelu posted his 14th double-double of the season and third in a row with 10 points and 15 rebounds. The Gators are 14-0 when Chinyelu records a double-double.
- Chinyelu joins Al Horford and Joakim Noah as the only Gators this century to post 250+ rebounds in back-to-back seasons.
- Chinyelu has four streaks of three or more double-doubles in a row this season and six games with 15+ rebounds.
- Isaiah Brown scored 12 points off the bench, including four dunks. It was just two points off his career high (14 at Vanderbilt).
- Thomas Haugh scored 21 of his 22 points in the second half.
- It marked the first time a Gator has scored 20 points in a half since Walter Clayton Jr.’s 20 in the second half of the Final Four win vs. Auburn.
- Haugh extended his streak to 18 consecutive games with a 3-pointer made.
- Haugh passed Noah Locke and Devin Robinson and now sits tied with Michael Lederman at 65th on UF’s career scoring list.
- Urban Klavžar added 11 points with three 3-pointers, while Xaivian Lee rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10.
- Florida sits in sole possession of first place in the SEC standings for the first time since finishing the 2014 season with a perfect 18-0 record.
- The Gators have four straight SEC road wins, tying for the third-longest such streak in Florida history. This is UF’s longest SEC road win streak since 2017’s four-game streak and only trails previous SEC road winning streaks of 10 (2014 and 2015) and six (2006 and 2007).
- Florida improves to 5-0 vs. ranked SEC opponents this season. The Gators are 23-15 (.605) vs. ranked opponents under Todd Golden.
- UF now holds a 12-9 all-time record vs. Texas A&M, including 3-3 under Golden. UF is 4-6 in College Station, 1-2 under Golden.
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