Florida brings depth, balance into clash with East Carolina

Florida coach Todd Golden was asked for his assessment of Will Richard’s 21-point performance in Saturday’s 87-76 win over Richmond.

“My man went nuclear with four shots in a row,” Golden said.

Three straight 3-pointers, followed by a three-point play, came in a span of just over two minutes and turned a close game into a relatively easy win for the Gators (6-3).

Richard and Florida will aim for a similar outcome Thursday night in Lakeland, Fla., when they take on East Carolina in the Florida Tip-Off.

Richard’s stats are slightly down from last season, when he averaged 10.2 points per game and shot 49.3 percent from the field. Even with Saturday’s game factored in, he’s scoring only 9.7 per game on 40.3 percent shooting.

Iona transfer Walter Clayton has been the Gators’ top gun this year at 15.9 points per game to go along with 4.0 assists but he endured an off game against Richmond, hitting just 2 of 7 shots in 26 minutes and finishing with eight points. Tyrese Samuel (14.2), Riley Kugel (13.6) and Zyon Pullin (13.0) are also in double figures for a team tallying 83.7 points per game.

Meanwhile, East Carolina (6-4) is coming off a 68-62 home loss Saturday to South Carolina. The Pirates got off to a slow start, trailing 35-28 at halftime, but fought back to take the lead before the Gamecocks scored the game’s final six points at the foul line.

“Obviously frustrated that we weren’t able to close out the game,” East Carolina coach Mike Schwartz said. “I thought we put ourselves in a position to have a chance and we were not able to do things down the stretch to complete the game.”

RJ Felton paced the Pirates with 15 points and is their leading scorer this season at 16.2 points per game, followed closely by Brandon Johnson (14.6) and Ezra Ausar (14.3).

This will be the first meeting of the two programs.

–Field Level Media