FINAL: No. 18 Florida 88, Wichita State 51

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What Happened

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. was the high scorer for Florida, but he was hardly the story of the 18th-ranked Gators’ 88-51 absolute annihilation Friday of Wichita State in the championship game of the ESPN Events Invitational at State Farm Field House. Clayton, named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, threw in 19 points, including five 3-pointers, but it was UF’s frighteningly efficient performance on both ends of the floor that led to one of the lopsided outcomes of this era of Florida basketball.

The Gators, in winning their eighth consecutive game to start a season for the first time since 2009, used a 27-0 run that bridged the two halves — 16-0 to end the first, 11-0 to start the second — to turn the tournament title game against a previously unbeaten foe into a laugher.

UF shot 44.9 percent for the game, including 14 of 33 from the 3-point line, where seven different players hit at least one. On the defensive end, a day after suffocating Wake Forest into just 37.5 percent shooting and 3-for-20 from deep, the Gators held the Shockers to 29.8 percent (18.8 in the first half) and out-rebounded them 56-30, with a plus-13 margin on the offensive end.

Sophomore forward Alex Condon had 17 points and nine rebounds, but it was sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu , the transfer from Washington State, who helped ignite his team with relentless energy from the opening tip on his way to a double-double (his first as a Gator) of 14 points and 11 rebounds to go with four assists, four blocks and zero turnovers.

Florida led by just three, 21-18, inside six minutes when the Gator avalanche began. It started with an offensive rebound and putback by Condon, followed by another putback by Chinyelu, who about 25 seconds later took a lob from guard Will Richard about three feet above the rim and tomahawked the pass through the cylinder to force a Shockers timeout and send the partisan crowd into a tizzy.

Out of the stoppage it was more of the same. First came a Condon 3-pointer (he was 3-for-3 from out there), followed by another alley-oop from Richard for a slam, this time to Clayton, with just over a minute left. Two more misses by the … Read More