JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In the first half, Alex Condon went to work in the low post, helping Florida to a double-digit lead at intermission by scoring 15 points. In the second half, it was Rueben Chinyelu doing beastly things down low on his way to a second straight double-double.
Along the way, steady forward Thomas Haugh did his thing, with backup guard Urban Klavzar entering the chat by splashing four 3-pointers in a career performance, as the 10th-ranked Gators pulled away Sunday night for a comfortable 82-68 defeat of the Miami Hurricanes in their Jacksonville Hoops Showdown meeting at VyStar Memorial Arena.
UF started a little slow, a little sloppy, but eventually used another outstanding defensive performance to surge to an 18-point lead and coast home.
"I thought, in the second half, we were just very competitive, much better handling the basketball," Florida coach Todd Golden said, while flanked on the post-game podium by Condon and Klavzar. "Both of these guys next to me played great games."
So did Chinyelu, who went 7-for-10 from the floor on his way to 16 points to go with 12 rebounds. Haugh, the team's leading scorer, had 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists over a team-high 36 minutes.
Combined, the front line trio of Condon, Chinyelu and Haugh tallied 52 points, made 20 of their 31 shots, grabbed 27 rebounds and blocked four shots. Had backup 7-foot-1 center Micah Handlogten not left the game in the first half after taking a forearm to the head – "We held him out for precautionary reasons," Golden said – the numbers for the UF "bigs" could have been even bigger.
The final margin, also.
"They have guys who have pedigree and have played in big moments," said Miami coach Jai Lucas, in his first season at Coral Gables. "We're not there, yet."
Florida forward Alex Condon(21) going to work down low on his way to 19 points and seven rebounds.
Condon, the 6-11 Australian (and one of those "guys" Lucas was referencing), bounced back from a six-turnover game last week in a win over Florida State by scoring 19 points on 8-for-12 from the field, with a couple 3-pointers, grabbing seven rebounds and turning the ball over twice in 23 minutes before fouling out with 5:11 to play and the Gators (3-1) leading by 16.
"I just played free," Condon said.
Klavzar, the sharp-shooting Slovian, came into the game having missed 11 of his 14 attempts from distance to open the season. Against the Hurricanes (3-1), he went 4-for-7 from the arc on the way to 15 points over his 25 minutes, both career highs.
"I'm just trying to be confident every day," Klavzar said. "The work that we put in has to show up every night. You have to stay confident and take those shots."
That was the message from Golden and his staff the last several days as the team tried to work through its collective early struggles from the 3-point line. The Gators came in at 21.1% through their first three games. While Klavzar was getting right, the transfer backcourt of Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee combined to miss all 10 of their shots from deep and went 3-for-17 overall in their 57 minutes.
Even so, the game was never really in doubt, even though the Hurricanes did draw within three once in the second half and four a couple times midway through the period before the Gators took over.
"Our message to the team after the game was imagine how good we're going to be when these guys start making some shots," said Golden, whose team still hit 45.8% overall and a season-high 31 from distance. "I think our ceiling is really high and I think our floor is really high. To beat a team like Miami by 14 without getting any 3s from them, that's a pretty outstanding effort."
Gators center Rueben Chinyelu(9) finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds and several gestures to the fans.
UF got off to an early 9-2 lead, but a careless mini-stretch – five turnovers in less two minutes, all leading to UM baskets – had the Hurricanes out in front 14-13. The game was tied at 19 when Condon squared up and nailed a 3. Not quite a minute later, he drove to convert and bank shot in traffic.
The Gators never trailed again, though the Canes closed a 10-point halftime lead to three, 44-41, four minutes into the second period. A Klavzar 3 gave his team some breathing room. So did back-to-back post-up buckets from Chinyelu about two minutes later for an eight-point advantage.
The margin was nine when Klavzar dropped his fourth 3 at the 10:57 mark for an 11-point cushion. The margin remained at double-digits the rest of the game.
The common denominator throughout was the Florida defense, which limited Miami to just 33.8% shooting overall and five of 18 from the arc. UM forward Malik Reneau led all scorers with 22 points, but had to work for everything he got. Reneau, the Indiana transfer, took 23 shots, made only eight, went 1-for-5 from 3, turned the ball over three times and fouled out in 27 minutes.
"We fouled a little too much, but what I told the team in the locker room [is] we have to an elite defensive team. There's just no doubt about that," Golden said. "If we want to be the best team we can be, we have to be elite defensively and on the glass. When we play well and shoot well offensively, we ought to be able to beat a lot of the teams we come across."
On a night the Gators were far from perfect, Miami learned as much.
Todd Golden, Urban Klavzar and Alex Condon Postgame Press Conference 11-16-25Todd Golden, Urban Klavzar and Alex Condon Postgame Press Conference 11-16-25
Sunday, November 16
Todd Golden Media Availability 11-13-25 Todd Golden Media Availability 11-13-25
Thursday, November 13
Florida Men's Basketball | Rueben Chinyelu and Thomas Haugh Post Double-DoublesFlorida Men's Basketball | Rueben Chinyelu and Thomas Haugh Post Double-Doubles
