Florida Men’s Basketball Rattles Florida A&M

The No. 21 Florida Gators men’s basketball team remain undefeated 5-0 to start the season as it defeated the Florida A&M Rattlers 84-60 on Tuesday night at the O’Connell Center. 

Senior guard Will Richard, in his 100th collegiate game, led the way for the Gators. Richard had 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting. 

https://twitter.com/GatorsMBK/status/1859054681928200693

Persistence On Offense

While the Gators started the game slowly on offense, shooting 0-of-5 from 3-point range, it didn’t stop them from driving to the basket for easy buckets. An Alijah Martin and-1 basket put the Gators up 9-5 before they started to catch fire on 3-pointers from Richard and Walter Clayton Jr. 

While the offense started to heat up, the defense didn’t let up, either. The Gators got stop after stop on the defensive end, leading to several easy baskets on offense. 

Isaiah Brown came into the game firing with 3:06 to go in the half. His two 3-pointers led the way for the Gators as they ended the half on a 19-2 run. Their shooting percentage was up to 48.5% at halftime. 

Gators coach Todd Golden gave Brown credit for scoring his first collegiate points and for constantly bringing competitiveness. 

“Brown is a guy that we believe will be a great player here at Florida,” Golden said. “As early as next year, we think he could be an impact player … I was happy for him that he got to play a little more tonight.”

zay from the corner☄️

and first career points for the freshie ✔️ pic.twitter.com/syWVLaVpsA

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) November 20, 2024

Feet off Gas

While the Gators played a well-rounded first half, putting up 46 points and once leading by 30 points, they struggled for a majority of the second half. Their shooting percentage dropped to 34.3% in the second half. At one point, the team had a stretch of 10 consecutive misses. 

Golden emphasized his team needs to keep the same effort going into the second half. 

“I just thought the second half we let our foot off the gas,” Golden said. “We allowed [missed shots] to affect our defense a little bit in the second half and we … fouled way too much on the defensive end, sending them to the line 19 times.”

The Rattlers (0-4) were led by Sterling Young, who finished with 14 points. 

Up Next

The Gators continue the home stand at 7 p.m. Friday when they take Southern Illinois (2-2). The game will broadcast on SEC Network+ and ESPN 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF.