GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Unlike their last Saturday game in the building (a loss to Auburn three weeks ago), the Florida Gators didn’t mess around this time. They came out spirited and fairly crisp in jumping on rival Kentucky early. 
 
And unlike their other Southeastern Conference defeat (at Missouri to open the league schedule six weeks ago), the Gators didn’t give away the double-digit lead they worked so hard to build. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but it was efficient enough to finish off a 92-83 defeat of league rival Kentucky before the second-largest crowd in Exactech Arena history. 
 
The Gators (19-6, 10-2) have won five in a row, including 10 of their previous 11, and remain alone atop the SEC standings. They also snapped a six-game losing streak against the Wildcats (17-8, 8-4) at the O’Dome, a run of defeats that dated to 2019. 
 
“We’re trending,” said UF coach Todd Golden, meaning as in upward. “I don’t necessarily have a goal of where we want to be at a certain point. We just want to get better, and we’ve definitely done that over the course of conference play.” 
 
The guard duo of Xaivian Lee and backup sharp-shooter Urban Klavzar combined for 41 points and nine 3-pointers to pace five UF players in double-figure scoring. Lee, the Princeton transfer, went seven of 12 from the floor and four of seven from deep on the way to 22 points, besting his previous SEC high of 18 set Wednesday in the team’s blowout win at Georgia. Klavzar, meanwhile, set his single-game SEC best by drilling five 3s on 11 attempts on the way to 19 points.
 
Their individual performance trumped that of UK point guard Denzel Aberdeen, who won a national championship last season as a key reserve and part-time starter for the Gators, only to transfer in the spring. With former teammates Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richard on NBA All-Star Weekend hiatus and seated courtside, Aberdeen dealt with Rowdy Reptile taunts of “TRAI-TOR” to finish with 19 points, but hit just eight of 21 shots, going 1-for-6 from deep, to go with five rebounds, four assists and two turnovers in his O’Dome return.

The Florida front court, meanwhile, combined for 43 points and 35 rebounds. Both Rueben Chinyelu (10 points, 11 rebounds) and Alex Condon (14 points, 11 rebounds) posted double doubles; a league-best 15^th for Chinyelu and a sixth for Condon this season. Thomas Haugh had 17 points and eight boards, while 7-foot-1 backup center Micah Handlogten had five boards, a couple steals and a game-high plus-14 while on the floor. 
 
“Just a total effort from the lads,” Condon said. 
 
UF shot 45.5% for the game and hit at least 10 3-pointers (on 28 attempts for 35.7%) in consecutive games for the first time this season. Lee buried four of his first five from deep. Klavzar hit two of his first seven, but three of his last four, including a couple super-timely bangers when the Wildcats were trying to come back.
 
“The message has always been how good our ceiling can be when our shots are falling and I think we’re seeing that a little bit right now,” Lee said. “But we’re not really focusing on that. We focusing on the controlables.”
 
Like rebounding and defense. UF was outworked on the boards in the first half, but still finished with a 45-37 overall edge and 17-13 on the offensive end. The Gators limited the Wildcats to 43.1% from the floor and forced 14 turnovers that led to 25 points. 
 
UK coach Mark Pope was expecting a challenge from the league’s best front line. 
 
“It’s what they hang their hats on,” Pope said. “[But] the difference today, their guard play was better and I thought that gave them a boost, especially early.” 

The Gators never trailed. 
 
Lee hit a 3 just 15 seconds into the game. UF scored the game’s first five points, built a double-digit lead less than six minutes in and led by as many as 15 in the first half before getting sloppy with turnovers and missing six consecutive shots, allowing the Wildcats to close to nine at halftime and as few as two, 43-41, early in the second period. 
 
Florida, though, answered with an old-time 3-point play from Haugh and transition 3-ball from Klavzar in succession to go back up by eight and slowly were able to build the lead back to as high as 16 with eight minutes to go.

The Wildcats still didn’t go away, though, cutting the margin back to single digits and trailing by just five, 88-83, with 36.8 seconds left after Colin Chandler (18 points) swished his fifth 3 of the game. 
 
Lee and point guard Boogie Fland, however, each knocked down a pair of free throws to close out the game and first home win over the Wildcats since Chris Chiozza’s “Senior Day” in 2018, thus leaving control of the program’s first SEC regular-season title since 2014 in the Gators’ hands. 
 
“It’s definitely a goal for us,” said Condon, turning his attention to Tuesday night’s home rematch against South Carolina, which UF defeated by 47 on the road just 10 days ago. “I think a good team would be like, ‘Okay, it’s another game,’ but Todd just said it in [the locker room] that really great teams treat every game like it’s a Final Four match-up. So, we’ve got to have an elite mentality before every game.”
 
And continue trending.
 
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.