Michael Frazier II had a career day as he carried the Gators on offense Tuesday night.
The sophomore shooting guard scored 37 points on 12-of-21 shooting and set a school-record after connecting on 11 of his 18 three-point attempts as No. 1 Florida rolled past South Carolina 72-46 in Columbia, S.C.
“It was kind of an on-going thing,” Frazier said. “My teammates just continued to find me and I just was able to knock down some shots.”
Added coach Billy Donovan: “He put on some shooting performance tonight and he shot it well in the first half and obviously in the second half, he just exploded.”
Frazier’s 11 made shots from beyond the arc were the most three-pointers made in a contest between two Southeastern Conference teams and surpassed Florida’s previous record of nine set by Joe Lawrence in 1986.
“It felt good in warmups and I came out and it felt good in the game,” the 6-foot-4 guard said. “The first couple felt really good even though I missed a couple. I was right there on target. My teammates just told me to keep shooting the ball and keep shooting open ones and the ball went in.”
Outside of Frazier’s 37-point performance, which tied Joakim Noah’s 2006 outing against Georgia for the highest output by a Florida player since Donovan became head coach in 1996, the highest-scoring shooter for UF was Patric Young with nine. No one else on the team connected from downtown.
“There was really no one else who really offensively gave us much other than Frazier,” Donovan said. “I thought Scottie Wilbekin had some great looks. DeVon Walker had a couple good looks. Dorian (Finney-Smith) had some good looks. And the way they play defensively, they force you to shoot over the top.”
After starting the game with seven unanswered points, the Gators (28-2, 17-0 SEC) allowed the Gamecocks (11-19, 4-13 SEC) to come back, with six lead changes and four ties occurring in the first 20 minutes of play. Heading into the half with a 28-26 advantage, Florida was shooting only 36.7 percent from the field and was outrebounded by South Carolina 21-12.
“They were winning the loose balls and they were winning the rebounds,” Wilbekin said. “They were just overall playing harder than us and our shots weren’t falling for the most part in the first half, but we were having some breakdowns on defense, so we just wanted to come out in the second half and correct that.”
After posting a 5-of-9 clip in the first half, Frazier continued his dominance in the final 20 minutes, sinking seven of his 12 shots, including a 6-of-9 shooting performance from beyond the arc.
While Frazier was the only player to score in the double digits for Florida, the Gators’ 16 assists on the night in Colonial Life Arena was a positive note for Donovan.
“I thought our guys were really unselfish,” he said. “I thought we read their defense right. The only thing I would have liked to have seen us done a couple times is when we got into the lane and passed it instead of taking those threes, maybe go back inside or put it on the floor, just a little bit better balance. But our guys executed well offensively in terms of moving in the ball.”
Florida’s defense also came alive during the second half. After allowing the Gamecocks to shoot 39.3 percent from the field in the first half, the Gators limited them to a 5-of-22 clip in the game’s final 20 minutes.
Florida held South Carolina’s Brenton Williams, who was sixth in the SEC with 18.2 points in conference play coming into Tuesday’s match, to just 7 points on 2-of-9 shooting.
“We knew he’s capable of going up for big games,” Wilbekin said, “so we just wanted to come out here and not let him get his average and just keep him alone.”
The Gators, who utilized a full-court press for a portion of the game, forced 19 Gamecocks turnovers, leading to 27 points. Florida also posted a season-high 17 steals, with Frazier, Kasey Hill and Casey Prather each forcing four on the night.
“Our defense and our hustle plays and loose balls were really, really good the last 20 minutes,” Donovan said. “The press was effective. It created some tempo for us. We had forced them into 19 turnovers, 17 steals. Those are things that kind of lead to good things in the end for us offensively.”
A radio broadcast contributed to this report
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Michael Frazier II attempts a layup during Florida’s 69-36 win against Texas A&M on Feb. 1 in the O’Connell Center.
