The Florida Gators made the Wichita State basketball team look like one turkey of a challenger on this Thanksgiving Weekend at the ESPN Events Invitational on Friday.
UF combined what has already become one of the most tenacious defenses in the country with its best offensive performance of the season in blowing out the Wheat Shockers 88-51in the championship game at ESPN Wide World of Sports.
Florida, used a 27-0 run in the first half, and held WSU to 20 percent shooting before the beak in bolting out to a 37-13 halftime lead.
In that first half, the Shockers hit just 9-of-43 floor shots, including only 4-of-18 3-pointers. Wichita State hit just 30% for the game (17-of-57).
Florida limited Wake Forest to just 3-of-20 from the perimeter in a semifinal victory Thursday.
The Gators finally got rolling on offense Friday. After shooting just 40 percent from the floor against Wake, UF found the net against WSU. The Gators ended up hitting 14 3-pointers (14-of-33) in the game, led by Walter Clayton Jr., who hit 5-of-9 3s in tallying 19 points.
Clayton also had 3 blocked shots on defense. Alex Condon added 17 points and 9 rebounds, Rueben Chinyelu had 14 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks.
UF, which had 10 steals against Wake on Thursday, kept the thievery going, with 6 steals against WSU.