Tennessee dominated Florida in the second half on Saturday at home. No Zakai Zeigler? No Igor Milicic Jr.? No problem, apparently. Down 2 starters and 2 of its top 4 scorers, the eighth-ranked Volunteers locked down the fifth-ranked Gators in the first half, rediscovered an offensive rhythm in the second half, and cruised to a 64-44 win.
It marked a 50-point turnaround from the first meeting between these 2 teams. It also earned Tennessee a sixth consecutive home win over an AP top-5 team, the longest such streak in SEC history.
Tennessee moved to 18-4 and 5-4 in conference play with the victory. Florida dropped to 18-3 overall and 5-3 in league play.
Here are 3 takeaways from the game.
Defense does the job again
Tennessee held Florida to 22 points in the first half, the fewest in an opening half by the Gators all season. The third-best offense in the country (per KenPom) looked completely out of sorts in the first half as a short-handed Tennessee rotation scratched and clawed and made the Gators work for everything.
Walter Clayton Jr. scored 10 first-half points, but he took 11 shots to get there. The rest of his teammates combined to shoot 4-for-16 from the field.
And it didn’t get any better in the second half, when Florida made just 6 of its 26 shots. The Gators ended the game with 44 points. Seven days ago, they scored 89 in a win over Georgia. They’d cleared 80 points in all but 4 of their games this season and hadn’t been held under 50 points in a game since March 15, 2023.
In the first meeting between the 2 teams, Florida feasted inside, scoring 40 paint points while holding the Vols to just 14. On Saturday, Florida managed only 14 points in the paint and shot just 14% on layups.
Clayton didn’t score a single point in the second half, though he battled through a nagging ankle injury. No one else reached double figures. Alijah Martin, coming off a 17-point performance in the Georgia win, went 2-for-12 from the field and didn’t score his first points until there were just 5 minutes remaining.
Will Richard took just 2 shots.
