Florida downs top-ranked Tennessee, extends home winning streak to 16

GAINESVILLE — Florida finally knocked off No. 1 at home, where the Gators are becoming impossible to beat.

UF did it playing top-ranked Tennessee’s own game.

Coach Todd Golden’s squad put the defensive clamps on Vols and never let up during a resounding 73-43 win Tuesday night, extending the Gators’ winning streak to 16 games in the O’Connell Center — where they are 8-0 and winning by an average of nearly 30 points.

Tennessee entered the nation’s last unbeaten and allowing an SEC-leading average of just 55.9 points, fewer than any team but Houston nationally. But Florida (14-1, 1-1 SEC) staked a 12-0 lead, was ahead 34-15 at halftime and coasted to deliver the Vols their first defeat.

As a raucous sellout crowd of 11,011 looked on, the Vols managed just 4 first-half field goals while missing all 14 3-point attempts against the Gators, who allowed Kentucky to shoot 58% from the field  — 48% from 3-point range — during a 106-100 loss Saturday.

The defensive effort allowed Florida to overcome a scoreless first half by point guard Walter Clayton Jr., who was coming off a 33-point outing and averaging a team-high 18.3.

The Gators had to earn everything early against Tennessee’s suffocating D, but scraped together a lead with hustle plays, aggressiveness in transition and 3 free throws by Denzel Aberdeen after he was fouled behind the arc.

The Vols didn’t score until Felix Okpara hit a pair of free throws with 13:19 left in the first half made it 12-2. Okpara’s alley-oop and two free throws by Jordan Gainey cut UF’s lead to six. But back-to-back 3s by Aberdeen and Will Richard pushed to advantage to 18-6.

Tennessee (14-1, 1-1) never got closer than 10 points and trailed by as many as 31, at 58-27 with 7:34 remaining.

SEC-leading scorer Chaz Lanier managed just 2 points during the first half but hit a 3 early in the second half after starting 1 of 10 from the field. Clayton, though, immediately answered with a 3 and his first points.

With their offensive leader off his game, plenty of Gators picked up the slack.

FAU transfer Alijah Martin had a team-high 18 points, Aberdeen, a junior and former Dr. Phillips standout, finished with a season-high 16 points, senior sophomore power forward Alex Condon had 12 points and 12 rebounds and sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu had a career-high 15 rebounds.

The Gators, who were 2.5-point favorites, moved to 3-17 all-time vs. the AP No. 1 team, picking up their first win since the 2007 national title game against Ohio State.

Edgar Thompson can be reached at moc.lenitnesodnalro@nospmohtge