A 25-point performance by Walter Clayton Jr. helped No. 20 Florida squash an attempted second-half comeback by rival Florida State, prevailing 87-74 in Tallahassee, Fla., on Friday night.
Clayton scored 16 of his points in the first half, and in the second half, Sam Alexis and Allijah Martin matched Clayton’s output with nine points each to close out the game. Martin finished with 17 points and Alexis added 12 to give Florida (4-0) the victory.
Florida State (3-1) pushed the tempo late, after going down 15 points with 7:53 remaining, the Seminoles went on a 19-8 run to cut the lead to 77-73 with 2:23 to go. Daquan Davis had nine points in the run for Florida State.
Martin responded, hitting a three-point shot after Thomas Haugh hit two free throws, a bank shot at the end of the shot clock to stake the Gators to a nine-point lead with 1:35 left.
What helped the Gators was their work on the boards, with Florida outrebounding the Seminoles 47-29. 34 of their rebounds were defensive.
Those rebounds gave the Gators an edge in second chance points, 16-9. Florida needed all of the rebounds too, after having a difficult evening holding onto possession, giving the ball away 19 times (compared to eight turnovers for FSU).
The Gators built a 44-31 halftime lead thanks to 7-for-15 shooting from beyond the arc and 55.6 percent shooting overall. The Seminoles were cold, shooting 3-for-9 from 3-point range and 36.4 percent overall.
The Noles were down by as many as 18 points with 5:38 remaining in the first half, but the start of the second half saw a renewed energy for the home side and they outscored the Gators 9-5 to bring the deficit to single digits.
Jamir Watkins led Florida State with 19 points. Watkins’ biggest help came from the bench with Justin Thomas, who scored 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting while going 3-for-3 from deep.
The win for Florida is their fourth in a row against the Seminoles, extending the Gators’ series lead to 47-28.
–Field Level Media
