Gators Continue Home Winning Streak After Win Over Kentucky
Juniors Al Horford and Joakim Noah each recorded double-doubles to lead the Gators past the Kentucky Wildcats, 85-72, on Sunday afternoon.
After the first half ended tied at 43-43, the Gators opened the second half by going on an 11-2 run. From there, Horford and Noah took over.
Horford finished with 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting and 10 rebounds to record his 13th double-double of the season and the 25th of his career, tying him with Udonis Haslem for the seventh-most double-doubles in UF history. Horford also made history by becoming the 41st Gator to reach 1,000 career points. By achieving the feat, Horford became the fourth Gator to do so this year joining Corey Brewer, Green, and Noah.
Noah recorded his fifth double-double of the season and 13th of his career by scoring 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Noah scored 13 of his points in the second half.
With Sunday's win, the Gators became the first SEC team to ever win six straight contests against Kentucky. UF also finished the regular season with a school record 18 home wins and went undefeated at home for the first time since 1993-94 (13-0). The win extends Florida's home winning streak to 19 games dating back to last season. UF also set a school record for conference wins (13) in a 16-game schedule.
The win was even more sweet for Humphrey and Chris Richard, as they became the winningest players in school history on Senior Night, with 103. Richard also has set a school record in games played with 132 career games surpassing the previous record of 131 that he shared with Matt Bonner. Humphrey finished with 11 points against Kentucky including going 3-for-7 on three pointers. His current streak of hitting a three-pointer in 30 consecutive games is only 3 games short of former Gator Brett Nelson's record of 33-straight games.
Walter Hodge played one of the better games of his young career coming off the Gator bench to finish with 15 points while going a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor including 3-of-3 from three-point range and 2-for-2 on free throws.
As a team, Florida finished the game shooting 64.0 percent from the field (32-for-50) including 69.6 percent in the second half and shooting 52.9 percent (9-for-17) on three pointers in the game.
Florida will be the No. 1 seed for the upcoming SEC tournament in Atlanta, GA. The Gators will tip-off at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 9 against the winner of the first round game between the No. 4 SEC West seed and the No. 5 SEC East seed.
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