ChompTalk.com

The No. 21 Florida Gators dominated the Florida A&M Rattlers on Tuesday night en route to an 84-60 victory at Exactech Arena as Florida continued its strong start to the season and improved to 5-0.

The Gators were led by the senior backcourt pairing of Will Richard and Walter Clayton Jr. Richard led all scorers with 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting and three 3-pointers. He also brought in seven rebounds, five of which were on the offensive glass. Clayton also knocked down three triples as he added 17 points with five assists and a pair of steals.

Along with Richard, four other Gators players had at least seven boards in the game. Sophomore Thomas Haugh also had seven rebounds to go along with 12 points. Alijah Martin, Rueben Chinyelu and Alex Condon all had nine boards in the game as Florida beat the Rattlers 47-36 on the glass.

The Gators were on fire in the first half, jumping out to a 46-22 lead at the break. This was largely due to their stellar stretch of play to end the frame. Florida closed out the first on a 19-2 run in the final 5:06, which was capped by two 3-pointers from freshman Isaiah Brown, the first two made baskets of his career.

The Gators shot lights out in the half as they made 49% of their shots from the field and went 7-of-16 from beyond the arc.

The second half was a different story. After extending its lead to a game-high 30 points with 13:40 to play, Florida took its foot off the gas pedal and cruised the rest of the way. In the second, the Gators shot just 34% from the floor including 3-of-18 from long range.

Even with the second-half struggles for Todd Golden’s team, the lead was too insurmountable for FAMU to come back from as Florida finished off its wire-to-wire victory of the season.

The Rattlers had just one man in double-figure as opposed to the Gators’ four. That one was Sterling Young who scored 12 points, nine of which came in the second half, in just 16 minutes on the floor. Jamine Charles also had a good game for Florida A&M as he had nine points on 4-of-7 shooting and corralled a game-high 12 rebounds.

Coming into this season, Florida had high expectations, but after this phenomenal undefeated start, those expectations have only grown. The Gators will look to improve to 6-0 on the year on Friday as they will host the Southern Illinois Salukis at Exactech Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET in Gainesville and can be seen on SEC Network.