Florida takes sole possession of 1st place in the SEC with blowout win at Texas A&M
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Florida is now atop the SEC standings after another double-digit victory, this time taking down Texas A&M. The Gators defeated the Aggies 86-67, improving to 8-2 in SEC play and 17-6 overall.
Both teams got off to slow starts. Texas A&M began the game shooting stunningly poorly, but its defense prevented Florida from putting the game out of reach in the early going.
The Aggies started the game 1-of-27 from the floor. At the 7:44 mark of the 1st half, an A&M layup cut Florida’s lead to 13-5. It was a 30-19 Florida advantage at the half. The second half was much more high-scoring, and UF only added to its lead.
Thomas Haugh scored 21 of his game-high 22 points in the second half. The Gators came out strong after the break, opening up a 28-point advantage of 52-24 with 14:32 to go.
Florida got outrebounded 26-24 in the first half, but made sure that didn’t stick for the game, and won the battle of the boards 50-43. Rueben Chinyelu was the game’s leading rebounder with 15 boards as part of another double-double with 10 rebounds. The Gators also received double-digit scoring from Isaiah Brown (12 points), Urban Klavzar (11 points) and Xaivian Lee (10 points).
The Gators have a half-game lead over Kentucky. Florida hosts UK on Saturday afternoon in Gainesville. UF next travels to Georgia on Wednesday.
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.
