Florida guard Walter Clayton understands how hard it is to get a win on the road in the Southeastern Conference.
But the No. 3 Gators sure made it look easy Saturday at No. 1 Auburn, opening up a 21-point second half lead en route to a 90-81 victory that was their second win this season against a top-ranked squad.
For an encore, Florida will stay on the road Tuesday night to play No. 22 Mississippi State in Starkville.
The Gators (20-3, 7-3 SEC) played at a national championship level Saturday, particularly Clayton. Returning from an ankle injury that kept him out of their previous game, a win over Vanderbilt, Clayton played all 40 minutes and finished with 19 points, nine assists and six rebounds.
Clayton’s iron-man performance was as much necessity as it was reward for great play. Florida’s No. 2 scorer, guard Alijah Martin, sat out with a hip pointer.
“We’ve all got a ‘next-man-up’ mentality,” Clayton said. “Alijah wasn’t on the court but Alijah’s still there. He was talking the whole game. He was telling us what he’s seeing. It was a lot of great communication between us and we executed.”
Five players finished in double figures, while the defense held the Tigers to 42.9 percent shooting, including 7 of 22 on 3-pointers. It was a win that might have major ramifications not just for SEC tournament seeding but for NCAA Tournament seeding, according to coach Todd Golden.
“It’s a needle-mover,” he said. “The biggest key was the mental toughness of our team.”
Clayton leads a balanced attack with 17.5 points and 4.0 assists per game, while Martin hits for 15.3 points. Will Richard adds 13.3 points and Alex Condon scores 11.0 points to go along with a team-high 8.1 rebounds.
Florida had no update to Martin’s status as of Sunday night.
While the Gators are flying high, the Bulldogs (17-6, 5-5) also enter with momentum after holding off Georgia for a 76-75 road win Saturday night. Josh Hubbard scored 16 points and doled out six assists to lead four players in double figures.
Mississippi State saved the win with clutch defense. Claudell Harris Jr. stole the ball from Silas Demary Jr. with two seconds left as Georgia tried for a potential game-winner.
“Nothing new,” forward Cameron Matthews said of the team effort. “That’s the same thing we’ve been working with all year. We got about 9-10 guys deep. We work hard every day. We get after each other every day, so we already knew what we could do.”
To send Florida back to Gainesville with a loss, the Bulldogs might have to turn a couple of weaknesses into strengths for one night. Entering Monday, they ranked just 299th in foul shooting at 67.9 percent and 288th in 3-point shooting at 32.0 percent.
Hubbard might be the guy to lean on in this one as he averages 17.5 points and connects on 36.0 percent of his 3-pointers while making 86.1 percent at the line. KeShawn Murphy (11.1 ppg) and Harris (10.2) also score in double figures.
This will be the teams’ lone meeting of the regular season. The Gators own a 68-53 record in the all-time series, although Mississippi State has a 35-23 advantage in Starkville.
–Field Level Media
