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Tennessee dominated Florida in the second half on Saturday at home. No Zakai Zeigler? No Igor Milicic Jr.? No problem, apparently. Down 2 starters and 2 of its top 4 scorers, the eighth-ranked Volunteers locked down the fifth-ranked Gators in the first half, rediscovered an offensive rhythm in the second half, and cruised to a 64-44 win.
It marked a 50-point turnaround from the first meeting between these 2 teams. It also earned Tennessee a sixth consecutive home win over an AP top-5 team, the longest such streak in SEC history.
Tennessee moved to 18-4 and 5-4 in conference play with the victory. Florida dropped to 18-3 overall and 5-3 in league play.
Here are 3 takeaways from the game.
Defense does the job again
Tennessee held Florida to 22 points in the first half, the fewest in an opening half by the Gators all season. The third-best offense in the country (per KenPom) looked completely out of sorts in the first half as a short-handed Tennessee rotation scratched and clawed and made the Gators work for everything.
Walter Clayton Jr. scored 10 first-half points, but he took 11 shots to get there. The rest of his teammates combined to shoot 4-for-16 from the field.
And it didn’t get any better in the second half, when Florida made just 6 of its 26 shots. The Gators ended the game with 44 points. Seven days ago, they scored 89 in a win over Georgia. They’d cleared 80 points in all but 4 of their games this season and hadn’t been held under 50 points in a game since March 15, 2023.
In the first meeting between the 2 teams, Florida feasted inside, scoring 40 paint points while holding the Vols to just 14. On Saturday, Florida managed only 14 points in the paint and shot just 14% on layups.
Clayton didn’t score a single point in the second half, though he battled through a nagging ankle injury. No one else reached double figures. Alijah Martin, coming off a 17-point performance in the Georgia win, went 2-for-12 from the field and didn’t score his first points until there were just 5 minutes remaining.
Will Richard took just 2 shots.
Florida’s leading guards (Clayton, Martin, Richard) came into the game averaging 47.5 points per game for the Gators. Tennessee held them to a combined 18 points on 6-of-27 shooting. The gameplan was clear. The guards were not going to beat the Vols, who tried to crack down on Florida’s DHO action and force the Gator bigs to take jumpshots 1-on-1. Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh combined to shoot 2-for-12 from the field and finished with just 2 assists.
Tennessee offense finds its groove
The broadcast showed Tennessee head football coach Josh Heupel at one point with a little graphic that was highly offensive to the Tennessee offense. The Vols’ football program had 5 different halves during the 2024 season where they scored at least 25 points.
Rick Barnes’ offense in the first half on Saturday managed only 24 points. The Vols found a bit of a groove late in the half, closing on an 8-2 run over the final 2:43, but the opening 20 minutes were painful to watch.
In the second half, Tennessee shot 52% from the field and knocked down 4 triples. Chaz Lanier caught fire, scoring 13 of his game-high 19 points in the second half while knocking down 3 triples.
As Lanier curled off a screen, rose to bury a 3, and then jogged back down the court to get himself set for the next possession, the biggest smile stretched over his face. Lanier had made just 9 of his 25 shot attempts over the previous 2 games. He went 5-for-16 from 3 against Kentucky and Auburn. In the win over Georgia on Jan. 15, he went 1-for-9 from beyond the arc and 2-for-16 overall. Sure, there was a 23-point performance against Mississippi State, but Lanier had been in something of a slump of late.
But that was true of Tennessee’s offense as a whole. They were woeful against Kentucky despite scoring 73 points, and they faltered late in a 2-point loss to Auburn.
Perhaps the second half of Saturday’s game provides the shot of confidence this group needed.
At one point, they pulled this off.
Is… Is this fun Tennessee basketball? Knoxville was rocking as the Vols built a 20-plus-point lead in the second half. It felt like an almost cathartic moment, like everyone was taking a long-overdue exhale after clenching every fiber of their bodies for weeks.
Related: Next up for the Vols is a game against a ranked Mizzou squad at home. Fans can bet on the game with one of our preferred Tennessee sports betting apps, and new users can score a sign-up bonus at several shops.
Walter Clayton’s status moving forward
As we saw between these 2 teams a few weeks ago, lumps are going to await teams when they venture out on the road in SEC play. It’s important to not let 1 loss snowball into more. Florida has a quick turnaround against another ranked opponent from the state of Tennessee next Tuesday.
And the Gators will play 2 more ranked foes on the road after that.
While it’s never a good time to see a player go down with an injury, it’s an especially crucial time for the Gators to be without their leading scorer.
With less than 2 minutes to play in the first half, Walter Clayton Jr. landed on a Tennessee defender after a shot attempt, rolled his left ankle, and had to be helped off the floor. He went straight to the Florida locker room, but emerged to start the second half. Though he played 10 more minutes, he was noticeably limited by the ankle. He spent time on the exercise bike when he wasn’t in the game, and he even went down again late in the second half.
Clayton’s status will obviously be monitored closely going forward. The senior guard entered Saturday’s matchup averaging 17.8 points, 4.0 assists, and 3.4 rebounds per game. He’s the Gators’ leading scorer and ranks in the top 10 among all SEC players in points per game, assists per game, and effective field goal percentage.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.