Gators relax for the second half of Aggies

Gainesville, Fla. – The Scouting report could have been so easy: rebound, rebound and rebound.

Florida's coach and player understood that the game on Saturday against Texas A&M would be suitable for the mutual street in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday. The Aggies came into the city with the call as a best defensive and one of the country's physical teams.

With a rebounder in abundance.

At the end of the game, the third -placed gators had more rebound than the No. 12 Aggies, whereby the offensive depth and the second chance points basically end in a push. As for the rating against the stubborn boys from A&M, Senior Guard, concerns Will Richard And a handful of teammates had covered this with their 89-70 win in the sold-out Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center.

Richard scored 25 points, dropped half a dozen 3 pointers and won six rebounds in 31 minutes. The 6-foot 4-senior wing, which four nights in the worrying defeat in Georgia, threw 30 out of 13 shots, six of nine, in a career height in career community, was the high-point man for the Gator (25-4, 12: 4) among five UF players in two figures. But it was the collective work of the team on the glass-one 42-37 overall edge and virtual draw at the offensive end (A&M by 1) and points of the second chance (A&M of 1)-the most pleased Todd Golden In a “Great Bounce Back” of three nights in Athens.

“Just go with these boys for 40 minutes and see how physically you are, how much talent you have, how competitive you are. I am simply incredibly proud of the way we played, and our ability to get away from you in the end,” said Golden, after winning the seventh in eight games and even winning Alabama for second place in the second place. “But they made it really difficult for us in the second half.”

After all, the superior talent and effort of the gators that corresponded to the aggies proved the difference.

Sophomore Forward Thomas Hagh Had 17 points, followed by Allijah Martin from fifth year, including four 3s in the first half. Sophomore Forward Alex CondonIn his second game back from an argument that cost him four games, an active force was an active force inside with 11 points in the 5-against-6 shooting with a few public duties in the decisive last minutes to achieve nine rebounds. Senior Guard Walter Clayton Jr. Had 10 points and was a game-best plus-20 on his box score line. Junior center Micah handlogs I only had two points, but eight rebounds, including four at the offensive end, had two steals, two assists and two blocks in just 16 minutes in front of the bank.

Uf shot 47.8 percent for the game (the aggies allowed 39.9) and cardned 21 assists, made 14 3 points with 42.4 percent (the aggies allowed 32.7) and the second most common points against A&M this season (the Aggies allowed 66.7 per game).

The gators held the aggies at 38.9 percent and only five 3 points with 29.4 percent. A&M only had three templates for the game.

“[Florida is] As good as every team in the country, “said A&M trainer Buzz Williams, whose squad took a seventh place two weeks ago, but has now lost in brutal second four in a row, is still well positioned for a third NCAA tournament in a row. [Golden] Has done a fabulous job. His employees, the cadre building, the style of play … You will still put a strain on them. “

The Aggies (20-9, 9-7) will in turn set up body. After the Gators had taken a few early blows underneath (A&M led after six minutes 16-10), Richard and Martin began to work from the outside.

“I think we did a good job in practice. It starts there,” said Hagh about the preparation for the basketball equivalent of a soccer game. “This is obvious what A&M does. They are a crazy, crazy, good, offensive rebound team that best in the nation. So in practice we worked a lot to do so that we bounced up a lot in the game. We knew that we had to come out with an edge and physicality and such things.”

Uf led 45-35 at half-time, with Richard started the second half with a few 3s, which the Gator shot into the lead over a lead of 17 points.

In less than nine minutes, however, the leadership of Florida was only six, as the Aggies deserved their livelihood from the attack and came to the free -wing line. The O'Dome had an uncanny, pseudo-loose feeling.

Richard and Condon set this and took the keyword of Golden to attack the extended defense of A&M.

“Coach emphasized when they went into their press,” said Richard. “We just did a great job to stay aggressive. Condon did a great job to do passes and games, and I just achieved an open look. It was good for us to end a game in this way. It was something that we could definitely build on.”

First Richard met a 3 to wake up the Rowdies, but A&M Point Guard Wade Taylor IV came back with one of his own. So Richard beat another. The next possessions in Florida ended with emphatic two-hand slams of Condon, who shook the building and remained the Gators with a little more than six minutes.

Two free throws from Taylor made it a nine-point lead, but the defense of A&M left Clayton without restriction in one of his Logo-3 Series, which made it a 12-point game. After a free throw from Aggie, Richard's sixth 3 set up the Gator 14.

A&M cut it to 10 minutes before the end, but uf scored the last nine points of the game to close their 21^stTwo -digit victory, nine of them that come in the conference game.

“You have to bounce back in this league, otherwise you can recover in a two- or three or four game defeat- and you can be a great team and be in the middle of the game,” said Golden, after (again) games falling in a row this season and basically describing an & m current situation. “I think it shows a lot about our maturity, our ability to rinse yourself, but also to learn from the mistakes we made in these games.”

This is a hardness to do that. This toughness rose as an opportunity on Saturday.

E -mail senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.rufl.edu