The Florida men’s basketball team faced perhaps its most difficult test of its 2024-25 season thus far: Traveling into enemy territory to take on a Florida State team who boasted a similar undefeated record coming into the game.
By the time UF senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. buried a 3-pointer with under one minute left to play, only one of the squads remained unbeaten.
Behind a stellar 25-point performance from Clayton Jr., Florida (4-0) defeated Florida State (3-1) 87-74 at Donald L. Tucker Civic Center in Tallahassee Friday.
Clayton Jr. opened the scoring for the Gators, banging home his first of four 3-pointers in the matchup. However, UF’s offense was inconsistent in the early going, leading to a 2:24 scoring skid for Florida.
As neither squad was able to build more than a six-point lead more than eight minutes into the game, Florida leaned on junior forward Sam Alexis to provide a spark. The Chattanooga transfer finished the contest with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting with three rebounds.
The Gators worked their way to a 31-19 lead with 6:39 remaining in the first half largely in part from two 3-point field goals converted by senior guards Will Richard and Alijah Martin in a 33-second span.
Just 15 minutes into the game, UF had already matched their previous season-high in 3-point field goals made with seven.
Florida took a 44-31 lead into halftime though, it had an incredibly difficult time protecting the basketball in the opening 20 minutes of the game. The Gators committed nine turnovers to the Seminoles five in the first half.
UF shot 56% on 15-of-27 shooting from the field and knocked down seven of its 15 3-point field goal attempts. But Florida had a slow start to the second half offensively, making just one of its seven field goals to open the period as FSU cut its lead to 49–40 with 15:37 left in the game.
The Gators kept the Seminoles in check throughout the majority of the second half with rebounding on both ends. UF was out-rebounding Florida State 34-17 with 8:37 left in the second half.
After a hot start to the game, Clayton Jr. cooled off, scoring just two points in roughly the first 17 minutes of the second half. However, Martin emerged as the second leading scorer with 14 points and gave the Gators some breathing room on the scoreboard in the late moments of the contest.
The Seminoles only trailed 77-73 with 2:21 remaining in the game, but it wasn’t enough to pull off the upset. UF ended the contest on a 10-1 run capped off by Clayton Jr.’s dagger 3-pointer.
Martin finished with 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting with five rebounds. UF junior guard Denzel Aberdeen tallied eight points off the bench including two 3-pointers. Richard rounded out the scoring for the Gators with seven points.
Next, Florida will return to Gainesville to take on FAMU at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Contact Max Tucker at mtucker@alligator.org. Follow him on X @Max_Tuckr1.
Max Tucker is a junior transfer student at UF. After obtaining his A.A. in Journalism from Santa Fe College in 2023, he chose further his education at Florida's College of Journalism and Communications. Max is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Journalism with a specialization in sports and media. He enjoys golfing and going to the beach with his friends in his free time.
