Florida Gators open 2023-24 season with 93-73 win over Loyola Maryland

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The new-look Gators made a strong first impression in their 2023-24 debut on Monday night. Ten different players scored and four finished in double figures in Florida’s 93-73 win over Loyola Maryland.

Preseason first-team All-SEC selection Riley Kugel led the team with 23 points and some impressive plays at the rim, including an alley-oop dunk in transition (see below). The sophomore guard also recorded a career-high six steals, twice as many as his previous mark.

“I’m glad he played really well. To your point, he did a great job at attacking downhill and he did a really good job putting the ball in the basket,” UF coach Todd Golden said of Kugel. “Overall, 10-of-15, and just a fantastic — he does a great job reading an opportunity to go make a play on the ball. You know, to get six steals is really impressive.”

The frontcourt duo of Micah Handlogten and Tyrese Samuel played well in their first starts at UF, with Handlogten scoring 16 and Samuel finishing with 15 points. Handlogten made his first seven field goal attempts, including a pair of 3-pointers, and Samuel had a team-high eight rebounds while shooting 5-for-9 from the floor.

“Tyrese 15 and 8. Pretty dang good. Would have liked him to make a few more free throws, Golden said of Samuel, who was 5-for-10 from the line. “Three assists, one turnover, plus-23. Thought he did really well. Micah had a funny game – 16 points, 2-for-2 from 3. I can’t say I was really expecting that tonight. But we’ll take it.”

The Gators jumped out to a 16-0 lead behind three buckets by Samuel and two 3-pointers from freshman center Alex Condon, who had 13 points on 5 of 8 shooting. The Greyhounds didn’t score until the 13:48 mark in the first half.

“I thought our tempo with that first group was really good,” Golden said at halftime during the radio broadcast. “The bench didn’t do a good enough job keeping the pace going.”

DENIED. ➡️
ALLEY-OOP. 🤩#GoGators | 📺 https://t.co/1ACH0NxGLo pic.twitter.com/TnabTlZ5JR

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) November 7, 2023

After building a 27-10 advantage, Florida only scored four points during a 6:35 stretch and struggled at the foul line as Loyola Maryland cut the deficit to 10 points with under six minutes left and only trailed 42-30 at the break.

“We gotta step up and make our free throws. Our inability to make free throws kept them in the ballgame,” Golden said of the Gators, who made 10-for-17 attempts at the charity stripe in the first period and finished 15-for-30 for the game.

“Our frontcourt has struggled a little bit that way, we will continue to address it. But this team will get to the line more. We’re a little more athletic. I think we have more opportunities to finish at the rim and we got to take advantage of those moments better than we did tonight.”

The two 3-pointers by Handlogten and a few buckets by Kugel and Samuel helped the Gators build a 20-point lead in the first five minutes of the second half. They led by as many as 26 — on one of three dunks by Handlogten — and shot 58.3 from the floor.

“I thought we did a good job in the beginning of the second half,” Golden said. “Wasn’t as pleased with the rest of the game, but in terms of kind of setting the tone early, and then we stretched that thing out to 26 with 12-and-a-half to go. I would have liked us to kind of keep our foot on the gas a little bit better that way, but 20 point win, we’ll take it.”

It was also a strong night by junior Walter Clayton Jr., who started at point guard and finished with 9 points, eight rebounds, a team-high five assists and three steals. Defensively, the Gators held Loyola Maryland to 45.8 percent shooting and 9-for-26 from downtown (34.6 percent).

The Greyhounds had three players in double figures, led by senior forward Golden Dike with a team-high 16 points and six rebounds.

“Defensively, I thought we were just OK. Again, early though, the first 10 minutes of the game I thought we were really good defensively. We were flying around getting a lot of steals. I thought we were more physical, and I just thought we relaxed a bit when we got up, to be honest,” Golden said.

“The game after the first two minutes never really got into a moment of where we were super stressed about the outcome, but that can’t be a reason why we relax and don’t play the way we need to the rest of the way. So, I think it’s an opportunity to learn.”

Florida is back in action on Friday against Virginia at the Hall of Fame Series event in Charlotte, NC. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. and the game will be televised by ACC Network.