Senior Trio Propels Gators Men’s Basketball

Florida Gators men’s basketball continue to dance in March Madness after a 77-75 win over Uconn in the Round of 32, despite trailing for the first 17 minutes of the second half.

Senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. hit a 3 over the head of redshirt junior Alex Karaban with 2:54 left to make the score 62-61, the Gators first lead since the first half. 24 second later, senior guard Will Richard picked UConn freshman forward Liam McNeeley‘s pocket and slammed it to make the Gator lead to three.

The icing on the cake – senior guard Alijah Martin picked up a deflection off of a sophomore forward Alex Condon missed free throw and slammed it authority. This signature dunk was Martin’s first points of the second half, and gave the Gators a 72-64 advantage with 40 seconds to play.

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The Gators do not win this game without the clutch play of their senior guard trio. Clayton Jr. finished with a game-high 23 points, Martin followed with 18 and Richard with 15.

“We made winning play after winning play down the stretch in the last six minutes, after about 34 minutes of it not looking like it was going to go our way, Florida coach Todd Golden said. “That’s the benefit of having three great senior leaders in the back court.”

Unafraid Of The Moment

After only scoring two points in the first half, Richard answered the call in the next twenty minutes. He had 13 second half points, including two clutch 3s when Uconn had a six point lead. He also went 5 for 6 from the free throw line, when the rest of the team missed 12 free throws in the second half.

“There were moments when we knew we needed to lock in and give a little extra because they were on a run,” Richard said. ” The three senior guards – we have a lot of experience, so we did a great job of trying to keep everybody calm throughout those moments.”

Clayton Jr. also turned it on down the stretch, after some bad turnovers that allowed Uconn to maintain its lead. In addition to the 3 that gave Florida its first second half lead, he hit a dagger over senior guard Haasan Diarra off the dribble a minute later. He finished the game 5-8 (62.5%) from 3.

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“He was making some uncharacteristic mistakes,” Golden said. What makes Walter so special is his ability to stay even-keeled regardless of how he’s doing whether it’s great or not so great… his confidence level never wavers regardless of what’s going on.”

Final Four Experience

Martin came out of the gate firing. He is used to the moment, as he was a member of Dusty May’s Final Four run with FAU two years ago. The first bucket of the game was a Martin signature emphatic dunk, which he followed with two early 3s. He had 16 of the Gators 31 first-half points.

What makes Florida so dangerous is the ability of any of these three to light a spark at any moment. In the first half it was all Martin, then Richard took over the scoring reigns to start the second, with Clayton closing out the game.

Sweet 16

Florida (32-4) will face No. 4 seed Maryland (27-8) in the West Region semifinals in San Francisco at 7:39 p.m. ET Thursday (TBS, 103.7-FM) at the Chase Center. The Terrapins narrowly defeated 12 seed Colorado State in the Round of 32 after a Derek Queen buzzer-beating layup. This is Florida’s first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2017.