No. 14 Florida, sitting alone atop the Southeastern Conference, will try to duplicate its defensive effort from the weekend when they travel to play high-scoring Georgia on Wednesday night in Athens, Ga.
The Gators (17-6, 8-2 SEC) shut down Texas A&M’s prolific, frenetic attack and rolled to an 86-67 road win on Saturday. The Florida defense, No. 2 in the SEC at 71.2 points, put the clamps on the Aggies, who entered the game leading the SEC with 92.0 points per game.
The Gators limited Texas A&M to 17.1% shooting in the first half that included 23 consecutive missed shots – highlighted by five blocked layups as the Aggies went 10:25 between baskets.
Florida needs to bring the same defensive effort against Georgia (17-6, 5-5), the SEC’s new leader with 91.9 points per game. The Bulldogs are coming off an 83-71 win at LSU that ended a three-game losing streak.
The Gators have won four straight conference road games, something they had not done since 2017.
“Obviously, we’re really pleased where we are right now, but we’ve got eight more league games left and a lot can happen,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “There’s a lot of teams with three and four losses and it’s all about us taking care of our business. We’ve got to take one game at a time, as cliche as that sounds.”
Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu leads the SEC in rebounding (11.5 per game) and double-doubles (14). Thomas Haugh, who scored a game-high 22 against the Aggies, ranks seventh in the SEC with 17.8 points per game.
“The great thing about being in this position is we don’t have to worry about anybody else,” Golden said. “Just see what’s in front of us, one game at a time. And we’ll be ready to go against Georgia on Wednesday.”
Georgia is coming off one of its best defensive efforts of the season. The Bulldogs forced 14 turnovers and limited the Tigers to 5 of 23 (21.7%) from 3-point range.
“I thought we were pretty sharp for 40 minutes defensively,” said Georgia coach Mike White. “Proud of the effort. A lot of carryover from practice. These guys worked hard and their attention to detail was pretty good against an LSU team that’s capable of beating anyone in our league. That was a big win for us.”
White said the Bulldogs need to continue to get better on the boards. Florida leads the nation in rebounding margin (plus-15.2 per game) and owns a height advantage over the Bulldogs, who outrebound foes by just 1.5 per game.
“We made a significant improvement with our desire to compete on the glass,” White said. “Now here comes another SEC opponent who is prolific at rebounding the basketball. If we can just stay in the fight. We can’t get demolished on the glass. We’ve got to keep it close.”
The Bulldogs continue to share the offensive load. On Saturday it was Kanon Catchings, who finished with 23 points, including five 3-pointers — tying his career high in both categories. He averages 11.2 points to join Jeremiah Wilkinson (17.1), Blue Cain (13.2) and Marcus “Smurf” Millender (11.7) in double figures.
Florida leads the series 127-102, but Georgia is 62-47 in games played in Athens. That includes an 88-83 win on Feb. 25, 2025, that marked the Gators’ last loss on their way to the NCAA title.
–Field Level Media
