Looking for its 13th straight win in the series, No. 3 Florida faces rival Georgia in Southeastern Conference action on Tuesday night in Athens, Ga.
The Gators (24-3, 11-3) haven’t lost to Georgia since March 2019, when current Bulldogs head coach Mike White was Florida’s coach.
The Gators currently are riding a six-game winning streak, with five of the six contests won by double figures.
With their 79-65 road victory against LSU on Saturday, the Gators inched closer to their third-ever No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the first since 2014.
After building an early 14-point lead, Florida was in a dogfight following a 22-2 LSU run that gave the Gators a six-point halftime deficit. As coach Todd Golden’s group has done throughout this season’s gauntlet of a conference schedule, Florida wore down its opponent, even after a shaky start.
“That was a great win for us,” Golden said. “We came out playing very well, but credit to LSU, I thought they punked us over the back half of the first half. … At halftime we had to recalibrate and make sure we got back to rebounding, defending, taking care of the ball and doing the things that don’t require talent.”
For an offense that ranks 11th nationally with an average of 83.6 points per game and boasts prominent backcourt scorers in Walter Clayton Jr. (17.1 ppg), Alijah Martin (15.0) and Will Richard (12.6), Florida has added a low-post presence, center Rueben Chinyelu, who is averaging 13.3 points and 7.0 rebounds over the last three games. He is at 6.2 ppg and 6.6 rpg for the season.
“That was his best game as a Gator, for sure,” Golden said of Chinyelu’s 19-point, 13-rebound double-double against the Tigers. “He’s improving so much in real time, and he’s given us a big lift over these last couple of weeks.”
In the midst of a four-game losing streak, Georgia (16-11, 4-10) needs its tailspin to end if it wants to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade. Firmly on the bubble, an upset victory on Tuesday would boost a Bulldogs resume that’s in need of another quality win.
Georgia doesn’t have a loss outside of Quad 1 but is 3-10 against Top 25 teams this season. The Bulldogs hung tough on the road against No. 1 Auburn on Saturday before falling 82-70.
“We competed at a higher level than we have in recent weeks,” White said after the loss. “Auburn made some big plays late. Otherwise it would have been even more interesting at the end. If we continue to play like that down the stretch of the season, I’ve got faith that we have some more wins in us.”
Georgia’s 66-63 November victory over then-No. 22 St. John’s is pulling much of the resume’s weight, while a pair of January victories against ranked teams Kentucky and Oklahoma have the Bulldogs in contention to hear their name on Selection Sunday next month.
Asa Newell leads Georgia with an average of 15.4 points per game, while Silas Demary Jr. is second at 12.1.
–Field Level Media
