GAINESVILLE, Fla. – His team was rolling along, up by 24, and Florida guard Alijah Martin was hotter than a solar panel in July. Forward Sam Alexis grabbed the rebound of an errant Southern Illinois shot, kicked a pass ahead to guard Will Richard, who knew exactly where the ball needed to go.
To the sizzling Martin on the wing.
Martin, the 6-foot-3 strong-safety-lookalike-of-a-guard, caught the ball, squared up and launched a 3-pointer. With the shot in mid-flight, Martin wheeled toward the Rowdy Reptiles student section and began retreating back down the floor before his eighth 3-pointer of the night even dropped through the cylinder.
"Yeah, I felt like it was going in," Martin said after the 21st-ranked Gators' 93-68 sheering of the Salukis. "I felt like they were all going in."
Understandably so. Martin, the Florida Atlantic transfer, poured in 32 points, hitting 11 of his 19 field-goal attempts, but a rip-roaring 8-for-13 from distance. He also tallied team highs of nine rebounds, five assists and two steals, as the Gators (6-0) equaled their best start to a season in their 11 seasons since icon coach Billy Donovan bolted for the NBA.
Sophomore forward Thomas Haugh added 19 points, including three 3-pointers, plus nine rebounds and four blocks, each of those numbers either equaling or setting personal bests for the 6-9 forward. UF shot 46.7 for the game behind a whopping 25 assists (to just six turnovers) and defended SIU at 34.7 percent for the game, despite being out-classed on the glass 49-46, with a 20-16 deficit on the offensive end.
"We've not been able to play 40 complete minutes defensively or on the glass, so I thought we let ourselves off the hook that way," UF coach Todd Golden before pivoting to the positive. "But those are probably hyper-critical thoughts after a 25-point win. I really thought our guys did a good job start to finish tonight."
Sophomore forwardThomas Haugh (10) slams two of his career-best 19 points (on an assist from Alijah Martin, of course)
Especially from the arc, where UF hit a season-best 41 percent from the arc – on a home-floor record-tying 39 attempts – that had the Gators beaming after their slow start to the season from distance.
That and Martin's show-stopping performance, of course.
"He had it going," Golden said of his prized transfer portal acquisition, who fell two points shy of equaling his career-high 34. "He was just nuclear tonight and I'm really happy for him. He's putting in a lot of work, a lot of extra time and he treats this like a profession."
And he looked the part of a professional, especially when the ball left his hand. Martin scored 18 in the first half, including a flurry of seven straight – with a wicked slam dunk – during a 22-2 run that turned a four-point game into a rout with a minute to play before halftime. Martin had one more bucket during the spree (a transition 3, of course) that was UF's last field goal before the break and had the Gators up 46-19 before the Salukis (2-3), out of the Missouri Valley Conference, scored six quick points to end the period.
Florida, even with scoring leader Walter Clayton Jr. (18.3 per game) limited to just seven points, was chugging along up 55-34 in the second half when Haugh pitched a pass to Martin, who had his feet maybe 10 feet deep in the midcourt Gator head logo when he bombed his first of four consecutive 3s at the 14:17. Then came another at 13:59. Then another at 13:03.
The fourth at 11:43, Martin finished off with Steph Curry Lite turnaround.
"Credit to my teammates," said Martin, a 36.7-career 3-point shooter who came into the game having made just eight of 30 from through five games (26.7 percent). "They've been pulling for me these last couple weeks I haven't been shooting the ball like I want to and everybody has been there to help and tell me to stay confident and stay ready."
His eight 3s tied the most made by a Gator in the 44-year history of the O'Dome, equaling marks held jointly by Jason Williams (in 1998 against Auburn) and KeVaughn Allen (in 2019 against Texas A&M).
"That one assist I had to him was like a half-court shot," Haugh marveled. "Once he made that I was like, 'This man is crazy right now.' "
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu
