The last couple of months has been kind to the Florida Gators (21-9, 11-6 SEC). From going to a bubble team to now finding themselves locked into a solid seed in this month’s madness, the Gators have been firing on all cylinders.
But no other night this season had the Gators looked this good. Hosting the Alabama Crimson Tide (20-10, 12-5 SEC), who beat the Gators just weeks ago, Florida absolutely dominated the Crimson Tide, winning 105-87.
From the very beginning of the game, the Gators found their rhythm. A 44-point first half was pretty impressive, and put the Gators up by nine at the break.
But the second half was even more dominant.
The Gators put up a whopping 61 points in the second half, outscoring the Tide by nine yet again to cruise to the 18-point victory.
The Gator offensive onslaught was led by four players who scored 19 or more points, as well as the team shooting an unreal 40-46 from the free throw stripe.
The leading Gator scorer was junior guard Will Richard, who had 23 points on eight for 12 shooting from the field.
Alongside Richard, junior guard Walter Clayton Jr. added 22 points. He was mostly inefficient from the field, only shooting three for 12, but the junior shot a whopping 15 for 16 from the free throw line.
Seniors guard Zyon Pullin and forward Tyrese Samuel both scored 19 points, and both men were perfect from the free throw line, shooting eight-for-eight and nine-for-nine respectively.
It seemed Alabama had no answer for the Gators, and their only avenue was to send UF to the free throw line, where they shined.
For the Tide, senior guard Mark Sears bounced back from a rough first half to score 29 in the second, finishing the game with 33 points.
However, other than Sears and senior guard Aaron Estrada, who scored 17 for the Tide, Alabama’s offense struggled to get it going consistently, shooting a dreadful five for 23 from the three point line.
In fact, four of those five made threes came from Sears alone.
The Tide’s offense also struggled with ball security, turning over the rock 13 times compared to the Gators’ nine turnovers.
Now fresh off arguably their best win of the season, the Gators will head back on the road for their SEC finale against the Vanderbilt Commodores (8-21, 3-13 SEC). They will then stay in the area for the SEC tournament, which kicks off in Nashville on March 13th.