What Happened

SUNRISE, Fla.  – Senior guard Xaivian Lee continued his climb out of an early season shooting slump Saturday, tallying a Florida career-high 24 points, including four 3-pointers, to lead the 18th-ranked Gators to an 80-70 victory over George Washington in the Orange Bowl Classic at Amerant Arena. 

Lee went six of 11 from the floor, four of eight from distance, grabbed six rebounds and dished four assists over 35 minutes on his way to claiming the game’s MVP honors. It was a nice follow-up to his 19 points in Tuesday’s four-point loss to fifth-ranked Connecticut in New York, when he went there shooting 24.7% overall and 21.1 from the arc. Junior forward Thomas Haugh added 19 points, seven rebounds and four rim-rattling second-half dunks. Sophomore point guard Boogie Fland had 12 points and five assists. Forward Alex Condon had just five points, but led the team with nine rebounds and seven assists. 

The Gators shot 50% for the game, but 66.7 in the second half to build a 20-point lead. The Revolutionaries got as close as 11 before UF took the margin back out, but also made eight of their last 10 shots to make the game cosmetically closer than it was. It might actually have been closer, had GW done better than 7-for-19 from the free-throw line (36.8%). The Revs came in at 75.6% on the season. 

UF led just 30-27 at the break after shooting just 36.7% for the opening period and four of 19 from the 3-point line (21%). Less than three minutes into the second half, the Florida lead was 14, courtesy of an 11-0 run to start the period, with four different UF players scoring during the spurt. Less than eight minutes into the half, the margin had swelled to 20, at 54-34. That’s when the Revs took off on a 9-0 run of their own to make things, momentarily, interesting.

Florida  answered with a quick seven-point spurt, with back-to-back-to-back wicked dunks by Haugh, Fland, then Haugh again that pushed the Gators back in front by 18 with inside seven minutes to go. GW cut the lead to eight twice inside a minute remaining, but UF sealed it with free throws.

Turning Point 

The start of the second half. It not only livened up the UF sidelines, but got the partisan crowd into the game. 
 

Staggering Statistic

The Gators’ 3-point shooting woes continued, this time going six of 27 (22.2%), with a seventh game this season under the 30% threshold. UF, though, was a smashing 21-for-27 from inside the arc. That’s 77.7%.
 

Up Next

Florida (6-4) will play its first home game in 26 days, with a visit from Saint Francis (2-8) on Wednesday night. The Red Flash, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., and out of the Northeast Conference, are one of the worst teams in the country, by metrics, with their two wins coming against a Division III opponent and another from the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.