First-place Florida takes care of South Carolina, extends winning streak to 6
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Florida will hold onto the top spot in the SEC standings heading into Saturday. The Gators, the conference’s hottest team right now, extended their winning streak to 6 with a 76-62 victory over South Carolina on Tuesday night in Gainesville.
Though South Carolina only led 53 seconds to UF’s 38 minutes plus, the game was more competitive than Florida‘s 95-48 rout on Jan.28 in Columbia. It was only a 6-point game in the final minute of the first half, but Florida finished strong to take a 10-point lead into the locker room. The Gators eventually pulled away in the second half.
It was another standout night for the Florida bigs, as all 3 scored in double figures. Alex Condon led the way with 20 points, and made it a double-double with 10 rebounds. Thomas Haugh added 10 points, hitting three 3-pointers.
Rueben Chinyelu has a new double-double streak going. He scored 10 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in Saturday’s win over Kentucky. On Tuesday, he only needed1 half to make it back-to-back double-doubles. Chinyelu posted 11 points and 13 rebounds in the first half, playing 14 minutes. He finished with 15 points and 17 boards.
Any upset hopes for South Carolina were in trouble from the start. The Gamecocks shot just 35.5% in the first half and finished 37.9% for the game. The Gators used their size to dominate rebounds (47-30) and points in the paint (44-28).
With the win, Todd Golden‘s team improves to 20-6 overall and 11-2 in conference play. The Gators will have at least a 1-game lead over Arkansas (19-6, 9-3) heading into Saturday at Ole Miss.
South Carolina, on a 7-game losing streak, is no 11-15 overall and 2-11 in SEC play. The Gamecocks will try to bounce back against Mississippi State.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
