Florida crowd goes wild as 7-9 Olivier Rioux gets Gators to 100 points against Alabama
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Standing at a towering 7-foot-9, Florida redshirt freshman Olivier Rioux has quickly become a fan favorite in Gainesville.
And while Rioux has appeared in games prior to Sunday, he delivered the first of potentially many highlights in his career when he scored to push the Gators’ point total to 100 late in the team’s win over Alabama.
Rioux caught a dump-off pass by the block, took a dribble to get into the painted area and then pivoted before firing off a hook shot.
That attempt bounced off the rim, but Rioux merely used his otherworldly wingspan to haul in the miss and put the ball right back in the basket.
The Florida faithful predictably went ballistic on a day they had plenty to cheer about. Todd Golden‘s squad made 51% of its attempts from the floor, out-rebounded the Crimson Tide by 11 and assisted on 24 buckets compared to just 2 turnovers. All of that added up to a commanding 100-77 win.
This was the 6th game Rioux has appeared in, and the bucket served as his fifth points of the season.
The Gators also achieved a milestone Sunday, as this was the 5th consecutive game Florida has scored 99 or more points against Alabama, all of which were wins.
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
