Three takeaways as No. 8 Florida basketball holds on down the stretch to put away Arkansas

Posted by Admin January 11, 2025 Basketball

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It didn’t start pretty, but No. 8 Florida basketball grinded out a key SEC road win Saturday at Arkansas.

Alijhah Martin led four scorers in double figures with 14 points, lifting the Florida Gators to a 71-63 win over the Razorbacks at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.

Florida (15-1, 2-1 SEC) overcame three players fouling out ― Martin, center Rueben Chinyelu and forward Thomas Haugh ― to improve to 2-1 on the road this season.

Walter Clayton Jr., Will Richard and Alex Condon added 12 points apiece, with Condon posting his second straight double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds).

Condon made clutch shots down the stretch. After Arkansas cut Florida’s lead to 65-58 on a 3-pointer by Boogie Fland with 2:27 left, Condon sank a 3-pointer to put UF back up 68-58 with 2:01 remaining.

Coming off a 30-point win over No. 1 Tennessee, Florida trailed by seven points in the first half before taking a 28-25 lead into halftime and maintaining it for the rest of the game.

Adou Thiero led Arkansas (11-5, 0-3 SEC) with 17 points. The Razorbacks cut Florida’s lead to 53-50 on a D.J. Wagner dunk with 6:11 left, but Florida answered with a 7-0 run to re-take control of the game.

Here are three takeaways from the win for UF:

Florida basketball outscores Arkansas in the paint, on second-chance points

Florida, again, did the physical things well, outrebounding Arkansas 49-39 and outscoring the Razorbacks 19-6 in second chance points,

The Gators overcame shooting 28.8% from 3-point range (8-28) by attacking the basket, outscoring Arkansas 32-22 in points in the paint.

An up-and-down game for the Florida basketball guard trio

Martin battled foul trouble throughout the game, which resulted in him playing just 27 minutes. He scored eight of his 14 points in the first half and made a big 3-pointer to put Florida up 63-52 with 3:53 remaining. Clayton had 12 points on 4 of 15 shooting and remained cold from the perimeter, going just 2 of 9 from 3-point range. He finished with five assists to three turnovers and has turned the ball over 12 times through his first three SEC game. Richard went 4 of 11 from the floor with 12 points and eight rebounds and came up with a huge hustle play, tracking down a loose-ball rebound, which led to two Condon free throws that put Florida up 58-50.

Florida basketball overcomes sluggish start to take lead into halftime

Florida trailed 11-4 after going just 2 of 9 from the floor to start the game.

But UF clawed its way back with defense. Down 13-6, the Gators went on an 11-0 run, holding the Razorbacks scoreless for a 4:57 stretch. Florida took its first lead, 15-13, on a goaltend call on a put-back attempt with 10:13 left in the first. Forward Sam Alexis followed with a dunk, extending UF’s lead to 17-13.

Florida maintained its lead for the rest of the half, but couldn’t pull away. Two free throws from Alexis put Florida up 28-22 with 1:34 left in the half, but Arkansas closed the half with a 3-0 run, with a Brazile basket off a Clayton turnover at the first-half buzzer cutting UF’s lead to 28-25 at the half.

The Gators shot 31.4% in the first half, while holding Arkansas to 29.0% shooting.

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1