Florida downs top-ranked Tennessee, extends home winning streak to 16

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida finally knocked off No. 1 at home, where the Gators are becoming impossible to beat.

UF did it playing top-ranked Tennessee’s own game.

“We were dominant from start to finish,” coach Todd Golden said. “We really didn’t have many lapses. There were not many possessions in that game where I did not think our guys were the tougher team.”

Golden’s squad put the defensive clamps on the Vols and never let up during a resounding 73-43 win Tuesday night, extending the Gators’ winning streak to 16 games in the O’Connell Center — where they are 8-0 and winning by an average of nearly 30 points.

“It’s gonna be hard to beat us here,” FAU transfer guard Alijah Martin said. “This is ours.”

Tennessee entered as the nation’s last unbeaten and allowing an SEC-leading average of just 55.9 points, fewer than any team but Houston nationally. But Florida (14-1, 1-1 SEC) staked a 12-0 lead, was ahead 34-15 at halftime and coasted to deliver the Vols their first defeat.

“We lost our poise,” Vols coach Rick Barnes said. “We got rushed and got disconnected on the offensive end. We’ll learn a lot from this.”

As a raucous sellout crowd of 11,011 looked on, the Vols managed just four first-half field goals while missing all 14 3-point attempts against the Gators, who allowed Kentucky to shoot 58% from the field — 48% from 3-point range — during a 106-100 loss Saturday.

The defensive effort allowed Florida to overcome a scoreless first half by point guard Walter Clayton Jr., who was coming off a 33-point outing and averaging a team-high 18.3.

The Gators had to earn everything early against Tennessee’s suffocating D, but scraped together a lead with hustle plays, aggressiveness in transition and three free throws by Denzel Aberdeen after he was fouled behind the arc.

The Vols didn’t score until Felix Okpara hit a pair of free throws with 13:19 left in the first half made it 12-2. Okpara’s alley-oop and two free throws by Jordan…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/florida-downs-top-ranked-tennessee-035100379.html

Author : Orlando Sentinel

Publish date : 2025-01-08 03:51:00

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