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The Florida Gators took down the Virginia Cavaliers 87-69 on Wednesday night at Exactech Arena as the Gators moved to 9-0 for just the third time in program history.

Florida was led on the offensive end by Walter Clayton Jr., who scored a game-high 27 points on 10-of-19 shooting and 5-of-12 from beyond the arc. He was also the Gators’ best facilitator as he had four assists.

Clayton was one of four Florida players in double-figures. Junior forward Alex Condon put up 19 points and was almost perfect from the floor, going 7-of-8 with a 3-pointer. In addition to his scoring, Condon led the Gators with eight rebounds, five of which came on the offensive glass.

Alijah Martin and Denzel Aberdeen were the other two double-figure scorers as Martin had 16 on 6-of-14 shooting and Aberdeen scored 12 as he went 4-of-5 from the field.

Virginia dominated the opening minutes of the game and led by as many as nine in the first half. However, the Gators stormed back with a 15-0 run over a seven-minute period, which included two long balls from Aberdeen who led Florida with 10 points at the break. The largest lead of the half for the Gators was 10.

After Florida’s long run, the Cavaliers finished the half strong and trailed by just four going into the second.

The second half was dominated by the Gators. After shooting a respectable 43% from the field in the first, Florida was red-hot in the second, shooting an unbelievable 64%, including going 5-of-10 from long range. This phenomenal shooting performance allowed the Gators to have a 14-point advantage in the half and coast to victory in the final few minutes.

One of the biggest stories of the game was the turnover battle. Virginia gave the ball away 15 times as opposed to just six turnovers for Florida. The Gators took advantage of this turnover differential and had a 20-4 upper hand in points off of it.

In the losing effort, the Cavaliers were led by Elijah Saunders, who scored a career-high 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor and 3-of-5 from deep. Isaac McKneely was the only other Virginia player in double-figures as he had 12 points, all of which came from downtown.

This fantastic start to the season for Florida has been nothing short of special as the Gators have won nine straight to begin the year, all of which by at least 13 points. Florida is now 9-0 for the first time since the 2005-06 season when the Gators started 17-0 and went on to win the national championship.

Florida will have 10 days off before it looks to extend its win streak to 10 against Arizona State in Atlanta at the Holiday Hoopsgiving. This will be the first time the Gators have met with the Sun Devils since 2008, when Florida won 70-57. Tipoff on Dec. 14 is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET and can be seen on SEC Network.