Walter Clayton Jr. comes up clutch in Gators' overtime win at UK
On the biggest stage of his college career, Walter Clayton Jr. rose to the occasion Wednesday and came up clutch in the Gators’ 94-91 win at No. 10 Kentucky.
Clayton’s 3-pointer with 3.0 seconds remaining in regulation forced overtime. He then hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:35 left to play in the extra period.
Clayton broke down his game-tying 3 on the feed from senior point guard Zyon Pullin, who led the team with seven assists.
“ZP does a great job attracting the defense,” Clayton said. “He’s a threat, obviously, so he drove middle and I raised up to the left wing. Reed was a little far away from me, came and closed out, I pump faked and hit the shot.”
Clayton finished with 23 points and a career-high seven 3-pointers (7-for-13). His previously made six twice, earlier this season vs Pitt and last year with Iona.
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“They’re a little young, and they were jumping at a lot of shot fakes for me,” Clayton said of his shooting performance against the Wildcats. “Using my pump fake, letting them pass me and getting the shot off. Shout out to my teammates, especially ZP, just finding me in my spot.”
The game-tying 3 was redemption for Clayton, who had a 3-point attempt blocked UK’s Reed Sheppard with 1:57 left. In the final seconds of regulation, a ball fake by Clayton caused Sheppard to leave his feet and he side-stepped left to sink the shot.
“Our guys played really poised in that last 15 seconds (of regulation),” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “It would’ve been really easy for ZP to come down and take a hero shot trying to extend the game. Did a great job playing off two (feet), found Walt on the wrap. Walt got his defender up in the air, side-stepped. That’s a great shot for him. Any shot he gets up, we feel like is a really good shot for our team.
“Once we got it to overtime, it kind of felt like we were playing with house money at that point. We weren’t nervous about anything. It was a five-minute game. Obviously, if you’d asked us coming into it tonight, would you have taken a five-minute game to determine the winner, we would have said absolutely. … Just made some big shots, and thought down the stretch we guarded well, held them to 25 percent in overtime. Heck of a win for us. We’ve been knocking on the door for a win like this in our opportunities.”
