What Happened
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. was the high scorer for Florida, but he was hardly the story of the 18th-ranked Gators’ 88-51 absolute annihilation Friday of Wichita State in the championship game of the ESPN Events Invitational at State Farm Field House. Clayton, named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, threw in 19 points, including five 3-pointers, but it was UF’s frighteningly efficient performance on both ends of the floor that led to one of the lopsided outcomes of this era of Florida basketball.
The Gators, in winning their eighth consecutive game to start a season for the first time since 2009, used a 27-0 run that bridged the two halves — 16-0 to end the first, 11-0 to start the second — to turn the tournament title game against a previously unbeaten foe into a laugher.
UF shot 44.9 percent for the game, including 14 of 33 from the 3-point line, where seven different players hit at least one. On the defensive end, a day after suffocating Wake Forest into just 37.5 percent shooting and 3-for-20 from deep, the Gators held the Shockers to 29.8 percent (18.8 in the first half) and out-rebounded them 56-30, with a plus-13 margin on the offensive end.
Sophomore forward Alex Condon had 17 points and nine rebounds, but it was sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu, the transfer from Washington State, who helped ignite his team with relentless energy from the opening tip on his way to a double-double (his first as a Gator) of 14 points and 11 rebounds to go with four assists, four blocks and zero turnovers.
Florida led by just three, 21-18, inside six minutes when the Gator avalanche began. It started with an offensive rebound and putback by Condon, followed by another putback by Chinyelu, who about 25 seconds later took a lob from guard Will Richard about three feet above the rim and tomahawked the pass through the cylinder to force a Shockers timeout and send the partisan crowd into a tizzy.
Out of the stoppage it was more of the same. First came a Condon 3-pointer (he was 3-for-3 from out there), followed by another alley-oop from Richard for a slam, this time to Clayton, with just over a minute left. Two more misses by the Shockers, who went 0-for-their-last-10 for the period, led to a coast-to-coast pull-up jumper by Clayton and a corner 3-pointer by Alijah Martin to complete the 16-0 end-of-half onslaught and send the Gators to the locker room up 37-18.
The second half began with four straight UF buckets, three of them 3s by a trio of different players that made the score 48-18.
The lead grew to high as 48 in the second half, with WSU scoring the game’s final 11 points on six consecutive makes.
What It Means
When the flurry of weekend games wraps, the Gators will remain among just a handful of unbeatens left in the country. That number was 23 heading into Black Friday games (including Wichita State, by the way), with UF one of just 13 power conference teams (seven from the Southeastern Conference) without a loss. Make that three holiday tournament titles for the Gators since 2019 (five since 2005), with this one representing a chance to ring up back-to-back victories against Top 100 opponents, per KenPom.com, after a relatively light schedule over the season’s first three weeks.
In the Spotlight
Chinyelu doesn’t have to number like he did Friday, but if the 6-foot-10 1/2 post man brings the kind of energy he rolled out at Disney the last two days — when he pitched in a combined 16 points and 20 rebounds — the Gators are going to be a very tough out this season.
Staggering Statistic
All eight of Florida wins this season have come by double digits, with the smallest margin the 13-point win at Florida State two weeks ago. With Friday’s 37-point difference, the Gators’ average margin of victory this season is 22.0.
Up Next
Florida (8-0) will have the rest of Thanksgiving holiday weekend off and get back to work Monday in preparation for Wednesday’s home ACC/SEC Challenge game against Virginia at Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center. The Cavaliers (5-2), who defeated Holy Cross 67-41 at home Friday, had their program rocked mere weeks before the start of the season when icon Coach Tony Bennett, who guided UVA to the 2019 national championship, surprisingly stepped down after 15 seasons. They have a couple players back from the team that beat the Gators 73-70 in a one-off neutral-site game at Charlotte last season.
* Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu
