STARKVILLE, Miss. – From his place on the Florida bench, sophomore forward Thomas Haugh felt the pit in his stomach. Just 30 seconds into Tuesday night's game, his best buddy and standout forward Alex Condon had collapsed to the floor and was grabbing his right ankle in obvious pain.
"It sucked, I'm not going to lie," Haugh said later. "I had flashbacks to the SEC Tournament last year."
As in when center Micah Handlogten went down early in the tourney championship game with a broken leg that ended his season. But that's where the similarities ended. Last March, the Gators lost Handlogten and went on to lose that SEC title game. This time, they didn't lose Condon – X-rays were negative – and they didn't lose the game, either.
Down a point after the first half, third-ranked UF unleashed a blue avalanche of knifing 3-pointers and suffocating defense to start the second period that staggered 22nd-ranked Mississippi State into an un-recoverable state in what ended in an 81-68 victory for the visitors in their Southeastern Conference showdown at Humphrey Coliseum.
Thomas Haugh(10) hit six of 10 field-goal attempts, including a season-high three 3-pointers.
Three days after shocking No. 1 Auburn on the road without second-leading scorer Alijah Martin (hip pointer), the Gators (21-3, 8-3) beat a second straight ranked opponent on the road – a first in school history – and did so without both Martin and Condon and their combined 26 points, 13 rebounds and 67 minutes per game.
"I'm incredibly proud of our team," UF coach Todd Golden said in what is becoming a post-game refrain during what is shaping up as the program's best season in 10 years. "Our team has continued to show a great next-man-up mentality. We've got to keep it going. It's not going to be easy, but this team has shown great resolve over the last week and a half."
What its secret?
"Coach Golden has engraved a toughness in us," Haugh said.
Make that three consecutive wins, none of which with a full complement of players. A week earlier, it was Vanderbilt at home without Walter Clayton Jr. (ankle). Saturday it was top-ranked Auburn minus Martin. This time, MSU (17-7, 5-6) without both Martin and Condon.
"It was sad to see, but we picked him up," junior guard Denzel Aberdeen said of the early Condon trauma. "Tommy came in and did what he had to do."
Everybody did. Again.
Junior guard Denzel Aberdeen(11) fires up a 3 over Josh Hubbard on his way to equaling his career high of 20 points.
Five UF players scored in double figures, led by Aberdeen's career best-equaling 20 points, four rebounds and two assists in a career-high 32 minutes. The 6-foot-9 Haugh stepped into Condon's spot and messed around with a triple-double, finishing with a stellar line of 16 points, nine rebounds, a career-best eight assists, two steals and two blocks over a career-high 37 minutes. Clayton had another superb, All-America type performance with 19 points, six rebounds, six assists and just one turnover over 37 minutes. Senior guard Will Richard tossed in 10 points, as did sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu, who also grabbed six rebounds and blocked a couple shots in a season-high 30 minutes
UF shot 45.9 percent for the game, but nearly 55 in the second half (8-for-16 from the 3-point line) in seizing command with the barrage of 3s and a defense that flustered the Bulldogs, one of the best offenses in the country, into a flurry of turnovers that became transition opportunities.
"The first five minutes of the second half, we did a great job of getting misses and not allowing them to get second chances," Golden said. "We were able to get out in transition, which we weren't able to do in the first half."
Maybe the early Condon gut punch had something to do with it. Their 6-foot-11, 230-pound standout and newly crowned SEC Player of the Week jumped for an inbound pass and landed on the foot of MSU forward RJ Melendez, stopping play just a half-minute in. After several minutes, Condon was carried to the locker room by UF trainers and the Gators huddled, with Golden saying a prayer for their fallen comrade.
The ensuing 19 minutes weren't great.
UF shot just 36.7 percent through the first period, hit only six of 20 from distance – missing some wide-open ones – and got clocked on the glass, 26-16, including 8-2 on the offensive end. Mississippi State, though, was having its shooting issues, as well. The Bulldogs made just 36.4 percent from the floor and went 2-for-15 from the arc (13.3 percent). They led 34-33 at the break.
In the locker room, Golden focused on rebounding. A minus-10 delta wasn't going to work. Without Condon, box-outs needed to be better and guards needed to crash with help. On the other end, the Gators had to make shots.
"We were playing the right way," Golden said of his offense.
That continued into the second half, with one difference.
"The ones we missed in the first half, we hit 'em in the second half," Aberdeen said.
Center Rueben Chinyelu (9) scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds in helping fill the void left by Alex Condon's injury and exit.
Aberdeen started the second half with a go-ahead 3 and UF never trailed again. Three minutes later, Richard hit one for a 9-0 run that prompted MSU coach Chris Jans to call a timeout. It didn't help.
Out of the stoppage Clayton hit another 3. Then Haugh bombed one. Then Aberdeen turned a turnover into a run-out slam-dunk for another eight straight points and 17-0 spree that marked the team's second-largest run of the season, had the Gators up 50-34 and forced another Jans timeout.
To that point, UF had six field goals, four of them 3-pointers. MSU had no field goals and six turnovers.
"I just was shocked that that's how we were playing," Jans said. "We just didn't have the type of urgency and fight that we showed the majority in the first half."
The Bulldogs, who got 19 points from point guard Josh Hubbard and seven from UF transfer guard Riley Kugel, shot 48 percent after halftime, but it hardly mattered. Most of the Bulldogs makes came after the out-of-intermission onslaught.
"We got those two kills in a row – six straight [defensive] stops -- and that just sparked it," Haugh said of a UF lead that grew to as high as 24 and never fell below 14. "And then we just hit shots. We hit a bunch of 3s and put the nail in the coffin."
Tommy Haugh shares a postgame embrace with former UF teammate Riley Kugel.
It was some beautiful basketball. The Gators finished with 19 assists (following 20 against Vandy and 22 at Auburn, giving them 61 over the past three games) to just eight turnovers. And the shooting? How 'bout 37 3s over those three games at 41 percent.
With the last two coming against NCAA Tournament-bound teams. On the road.
"We're competing to win the league," said Golden, whose club sits in a tie with Texas A&M for third place in the SEC standings, two games behind front-running Auburn and Alabama. "Winning a game like this allows [us] to stay in the conversation."
So does dodging a serious injury to Condon, who came in averaging 11.1 points and 8.0 rebounds per. He was taken to the Mississippi State football facility for X-rays and eventually returned to the arena after being diagnosed with a low-ankle sprain.
About midway into the second half, Haugh saw Condon, on crutches, standing in the tunnel toward the team locker room.
"He was laughing at me," Haugh said with a grin.
With this team, there's a lot to smile about. And, in Condon's case, much to be thankful about.
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu
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