‘Time to grow up’ UF basketball stays strong in second half to hold down No. 11 Auburn

With Florida basketball up by 16 points at home against No. 11 Auburn at halftime. head coach Todd Golden sent a simple message to his team at halftime.

“It’s time to grow up,” Golden said.

The Florida Gators (16-7. 6-4 SEC) stretched their 16-point lead to as many as 29 points in the second half and never let up in a 81-65 win over the Tigers at the O’Connell Center.

“Just start to finish, our best effort of the season,” Golden said.

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Florida had let second-half leads slip away in losses to Wake Forest, Kentucky and Texas A&M and failed to hold a 21-point, second half lead in an eventual 102-98 overtime win at home against Georgia.

“That’s something that we needed as a team,” Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. said. “Obviously we know what we’re capable of, we kept on getting off to big leads and we let our confidence let up. As a team, the mentality of our team was to step on their neck, just kind of put them in the ground.”

Defense fuels UF to win

Florida played its best defensive game in SEC play, holding Auburn to 42.1 percent shooting from the floor and 17.6 percent shooting (3-17) from 3-point range.

The 65 points was the fewest UF allowed in SEC player and fewest since beating Grambing State.

“We made them miss,” Golden said. “They’re a team that hasn’t shot it great all the time on the road, I think that kind of went into our favor today, but again, you know, they’re a top-5 team in the country depending on where you look analytically, so for us to be able to control the game, get a 29-point lead in the second half, obviously it bled a little bit late but it was never in question. I thought it was a really big growth experience for a team.”

UF center Micah Handlogten set an early tone with his interior defense with 3 steals and a blocked shot in the first half and finished the game with a season-high 4 blocked shots.

“He was awesome,” Golden said. “We’ve been challenging him to play with more physicality, and transparently he wasn’t good enough against A&M that way. Today I thought he accepted that challenge and really delivered.”

As a team, Florida finished with 10 steals and six blocks.

“Definitely say it’s up there,” Florida guard Zyon Pullin said of UF’s defensive performance. “I think that’s something we’re still trying to lock in on. And I think that’s something we’re gonna need to rely on, our defense if the offense is not falling.”

Gators stay physical, make FTs down the stretch

After Auburn made 50 trips to the free throw line in a home win earlier in the week against Alabama, Florida was able to both play through contact and keep Auburn from taking the game over at the line. UF mixed it up well on the boards, holding a slim 43-41 rebounding margin.

The seven day layoff helped UF in that regard, as opposed to Auburn playing on Wednesday night. Florida also finished the game off at the free-throw line, going 20 of 26 (76.9 percent), compared to 14 of 26 (53.8 percent) for Auburn.

“Definitely something getting used to, that physicality, especially from a team like that,” Pullin said. “But you know just keep playing through it was the biggest thing. We knew they were gonna be a physical team. It’s kind of what they kind of pride themselves on, just staying the course and not getting caught up in it.”