GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP)—Florida A&M had played two other ranked teams this season and was blown out both times.
So this was nothing new.
Mohamed Abukar scored a career-high 22 points, and No. 19 Florida routed Florida A&M 88-51 on Tuesday night.
“There’s a reason they’re called guarantee games: you’re guaranteed a paycheck and you’re guaranteed a loss,” FAMU coach Mike Gillespie said.
Abukar was 8-of-10 from the field, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, and showed signs of being ready to give the Gators (4-0) some much-needed depth in his sophomore season.
His previous career-best was 12 points, which came against Florida A&M last year. He struggled much of last season with an injured left shoulder, but had offseason surgery and has fully recovered.
“It feels totally different that I can now play with two arms,” he said. “It feels great. I am starting to come back with a lot more energy now and I feel stronger. … I am glad that is behind me because I think it helped.”
Abukar had 16 points at halftime, and the Gators led 47-28. They opened the second half with a 15-0 run, and Abukar later added three baskets to give Florida its biggest lead of the night.
He had a putback, then hit a jumper and a baseline shot on consecutive possessions to give the Gators an 83-46 lead.
“For him, it was like shooting fish in a barrel,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. “He knocked down some shots and opened up the game for us.”
Anthony Roberson finished with 13 points, and Corey Brewer added 11 before the Gators emptied their bench late in the game. Freshman point guard Taurean Green sprained his right ankle late in the game and did not return. Donovan said Green might miss Saturday’s game against Miami.
Jonathan Kelly and Michael Harper each had 10 points for the Rattlers (0-4), who have lost their games by a combined 122 points. They opened the season with road games against Michigan State, Illinois and Florida International.
The Rattlers played a triangle-and-2 zone in the first half against the Gators—playing man-to-man defense on Roberson and Matt Walsh—but left others, most notably Abukar, wide open.
Florida A&M also played zone because of several injuries. Point guard Tony Tate is slowed by a separated shoulder, Darius Glover is coming off double hernia surgery, Kelly is missing some teeth and Harper is recovering from a broken nose.
But the Gators made half of their 18 shots from beyond the arc in the first half.
Florida A&M switched to a full zone in the second half, but it didn’t change the tempo of the game. The Gators had the big run and didn’t allow the Rattlers to score in the first 6 minutes coming out of the locker room.
“It’s good to know that we have somebody who can score when we need them to score,” Roberson said of Abukar and Brewer.
