Gators top Texas A&M behind career-high 20 by Denzel Aberdeen
The Gators avenged their regular season loss at Texas A&M in Saturday’s SEC Tournament semifinals, rallying from an 18-point deficit and grinding out a 95-90 win over the Aggies. Florida’s comeback was led by Denzel Aberdeen off the bench.
Aberdeen scored a career-high 20 points, shooting 6-for-9 from the floor and 4-for-5 from downtown. He also recorded four steals, the most by a Florida player in an SEC Tournament game since Keyontae Johnson in 2019.
“Denzel, breakout game for him,” UF coach Todd Golden said. “He plays pretty dang well in practice every day, does a great job of being consistent, having a great work ethic and attitude. I’m really proud of Denzel for stepping up in this moment when his teammates needed him the most. We don’t win this game without him.”
The Gators faced 40-22 deficit after two scoring droughts of over four-and-a-half minutes, going 4:33 and 4:43 without a field goal. They made just one of eight attempts during that second stretch before Aberdeen ended it with back-to-back buckets and finished with 12 first-half points.
Trailing by eight at the break, Florida took its first lead of the game at the 13:51 mark of the second half with Walter Clayton Jr.’s fourth 3-pointer and built an 11-point advantage with 3:21 left on his four-point play. UF closed out the Aggies with nine free throws in the last two minutes.
Aberdeen was one of five Gators in double figures, along with Will Richard (19), Clayton (16), Zyon Pullin (15) and Tyrese Samuel (15). Clayton hit five 3-pointers and Richard had four as Florida made a season-high 14 treys. UF is now 10-2 this season when five players score in double figures.
The Gators are the first team to score 90 points in back-to-back SEC Tournament games since Kentucky in 1996.
Freshman Alex Condon finished just shy of a double-double with 9 points and a team-high nine rebounds. With starting center Micah Handlogten in foul trouble and playing just 12 minutes, A&M won the battle inside with rebounds (42-32), second-chance points (22-8) and points in the paint (34-26).
The Gators (24-10, 11-7 SEC) will face No. 4 seed Auburn (26-7, 13-5) in the SEC Tournament championship game at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The Tigers’ 73-66 win over Mississippi State in the semifinal. Florida had a dominant 81-65 win over Auburn on Feb. 10.
