GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Before the first media timeout, Florida was on a mini-run of five consecutive makes, with one bucket from each starter. 
 
It was that kind of (stat) night for the 18th-ranked Gators, who went on to smash Saint Francis 102-61 Wednesday at Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center. 
 
Senior guard Xaivian Lee continued his ascension from a shooting abyss by leading six UF players into double-figure scoring with 18 points, knocking down seven of his nine shots, including two of four 3s. Make that four out of the last five games that Lee has led the team in scoring. Junior forward Alex Condon tallied 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists, while junior center Rueben Chinyelu posted his fifth double-double of the season with 12 points, making all five of his shots, and clearing 11 boards. 

UF (7-4) shot 61% for the game, including 26 of 31 in the 2-point area (that’s 81.3%, the highest single-game performance by the team since 2003). The Gators hit six of 16 from the 3-point line (season-high 37.5%), dominated the glass 44-19 and got 42 points from the bench on the way to a 41-point victory margin that marked the second-largest of Coach Todd Golden‘s four seasons. 
 
And that was exactly the expectation coming in. Making things even better: No Florida player logging more than 25 minutes, which was a welcomed respite, given the demanding pre-Southeastern Conference schedule to date. 
 
“Obviously, a game we expected to win,” Golden said of his team’s first home date in 26 days – since defeating Merrimack on Nov. 21 – following a run of five games that jetted the squad to California, North Carolina, New York and South Florida. “The message to the guys before the game was to take advantage of the opportunity to compete back in our home gym. We haven’t been here in while. We didn’t play perfectly, but systematically did pretty well.”
 
No surprise. The Red Flash, out of the Northeast League, came in rated 361st out of the nation’s 365 Division I teams, making them the lowest-ranked UF opponent of the KenPom.com advanced metrics era, which dates to the 1996-97 season. 
 
The Gators didn’t mess around, jumping to an 11-2 lead that forced a SFU timeout not four minutes in. At that point, Lee, Condon, Chinyelu, Thomas Haugh and Boogie Fland — UF’s five starters — each had one field goal. A minute later, backup guard Isaiah Brown made it six different Gators in as many scores. 
 
That was the pattern the rest of the game, as the home team raced to a 47-23 halftime lead and built on it in the second half. 
 
“It was great being back home,” Condon said.
 
When it was done, 11 of the 12 scholarship Gators who played made at least one field goal, with walk-on 7-foot-9 redshirt freshman center Olivier Rioux joining the fray with a two-handed dunk (off a nice drop-off pass by freshman wing CJ Ingram) with 42 seconds remaining. It was the first career field goal for the tallest player in college basketball history.
 

YEAHHHH OLLIE 🤯🫨

📺 SECN pic.twitter.com/TQaS5PjoDa

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) December 18, 2025

Lee, meanwhile, has averaged 20.3 points on 54.5% shooting overall and 38.8% from the 3-point line over the last three games. Quite the contrast from his unfathomable struggles to start the season. And good timing, too, with the SEC season barely two weeks away.
 
“Shots are just starting to fall, so it looks a lot better honestly,” Lee said. “I feel the same out there, [with] a little pressure off now that the numbers are a little bit better. I’ve been sticking to the same process, and things are starting to go.”
 
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.