Florida basketball score, takeaways: No. 3 Gators blow out South Carolina behind career nights

Basketball

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Image Credit: UAA

It was not the usual suspects who dominated Saturday night for the No. 3 Florida Gators, but that was only a positive for a team garnering major national attention as the 2024-25 regular season reaches its final leg. Florida played tight in the first half before pulling away over the latter period for a dominant 88-67 win over the South Carolina Gamecocks at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida.

In doing so, the Gators improved to 22-3 (9-3 SEC) — tying the best record through 25 games in program history — with an opportunity to emerge as the No. 1 or No. 2 team in the nation when the new AP Top 25 poll is released Monday afternoon. Earlier Saturday, Florida found itself as the fourth No. 1 seed as the NCAA Selection Committee released its first look at the top 16 teams for the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

What went down in the O’Dome? Let’s take a look with some Fastbreak Takeaways.

It was over when … junior guard Denzel Aberdeen caught fire hitting three consecutive 3-pointers — with another from redshirt senior G Alijah Martin in between — as part of a 12-0 barrage that pushed Florida ahead by 21 points with 12:24 to play. The Gators used a 12-1 second half-opening run to build their first double-digit lead of the game, and they went up by as many as 25 points in the closing minutes of the contest. It was simply never close after the break.

First half focus: Florida made its first six shots of the game and led by nine points with 15:27 until halftime; however, it allowed South Carolina to build a 17-3 run to completely flip the momentum. The Gamecocks largely got whatever they wanted as the Gators struggled defensively, but the hosts hunkered down in the waining minutes of the period scoring seven of the last nine points to lead by four at halftime.

Exceptional efforts: Aberdeen posted a career-high 22 points on the back of an incredible performance from 3-point land. He hit 5 of 7 triples and 3 of 5 attempts inside the arc adding 3 assists and 2 rebounds. Sophomore forward Thomas Haugh — playing without running mate Alex Condon — posted a career-high 20 points hitting 3 of 6 attempts from long range and all five of his free throws; he added 6 boards and 3 dimes. The duo combined for nearly half of UF’s points on the evening.

Welcome back: Martin missed two games with a hip pointer and came off the bench Saturday night but nevertheless impressed. He scored 11 points on an efficient night from downtown as he hit 3 of 5 shots from deep adding 3 assists and 2 rebounds.

Helping Hand: After a back-and-forth over whether he would suit up this season, junior center Micah Handlogten, who suffered a fractured leg about 11 months ago in the 2024 SEC Tournament, decided to return to the court just two weeks after head coach Todd Golden expected him to sit out the remainder of the season. The 7-foot-1, 235-pounder saw his first action Saturday night with Condon and junior F Sam Alexis both sidelined with ankle injuries. Handlogten made his attempt of the game in 20 minutes of action dishing 5 assists and grabbing 3 boards, though he did commit 4 fouls in limited time.

Odds & ends: Florida improved to 50-29 all-time against South Carolina with a 23-10 record at home and victories in four of the last five overall meetings … the Gators under Golden improved to 49-9 when leading at halftime, 57-5 when leading with 5 minutes left, 43-9 when outrebounding an opponent, 42-8 when shooting better than 45% from the field, 56-7 when outshooting an opponent, 20-4 when shooting 40% or better from 3-point range, 50-8 when outshooting an opponent from 3-point range and 19-3 when five or more players score in double figures … UF was excellent in transition winning points off turnovers (21-11) and fastbreak scoring (26-7) battles … senior G Walter Clayton Jr. extended his program record with a made 3-pointer in his 47th consecutive game

What it means: It’s tough to come up with new platitudes for this Gators team given it continues to win games in basically every method possible. However, this is perhaps the first time all season in which all of its usual stars played secondary roles to normal reserves with Florida nevertheless dominating an opponent. Clayton and senior G Will Richard combined for just 18 points and 2 of 8 shooting from long range, though Clayton did dish 8 assists.

South Carolina is winless in SEC play, which takes some “umph” out of the victory, but UF made it a no-doubter immediately out of halftime for the second straight game, and it was able to cruise to the finish while trying different lineup combinations and completing 50% of its triples (14 of 28).

What has been most impressive about the Gators of late is how well they have distributed the basketball. Florida notched assists on 75% of its made baskets (24 of 32) on Saturday night, which is simply an insane ratio. That marks the fourth straight game in which they’ve assisted on 65% or more of their field goals. The 85 assists through four games are UF’s most since at least the 2009-10 season. (Easily readable game log information is not available past 2010-11.)

What’s next? Florida will remain home when it hosts Oklahoma on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. ET tip off. The game will air live nationally on ESPN 2.