The defending national champions lost their second game of the season Thursday.
In a back-and-forth contest, Florida lost 84-80 to TCU on the first day of the Rady Children’s Invitational in San Diego, California. The Horned Frogs came back after trailing 44-39 at the break.
Here are five takeaways from Florida’s Thanksgiving Day contest against the Horned Frogs.
Turnover issues continue
Heading into Thursday, the Horned Frogs were averaging 16.8 forced turnovers a game, and they continued to pressure the Gators.
The Gators committed 19 turnovers and trailed 10-4 in the turnover battle at the break. As a result, Florida gave up 22 points off turnovers.
Thomas Haugh had five turnovers for the Gators, followed by Rueben Chinyelu and Boogie Fland, who had four apiece. TCU’s Brock Harding, who entered the game sixth in the nation with 3.4 steals a game, finished the contest with five steals.
Thursday's contest marked the fourth consecutive game where the Gators finished on the wrong end of the turnover battle.
Xaivian Lee’s struggles persist
The senior transfer from Princeton has yet to find his stride through six games, averaging 7.6 points a game on 23% shooting, including 16% from 3.
Against TCU, Lee’s struggles remained, finishing the night with 5 points on 1-of-6 shooting and five fouls.
After picking up two fouls early in the second half, the Toronto native was sidelined for 14 minutes. He missed his first shot with an airball from a step-back 3-pointer and picked up his 2 points in the first half from the line.
Lee knocked down his first triple to give the Gators a 49-43 lead with 16:23 left in the second half. He fouled out with two seconds left when he intentionally fouled Brock Harding.
Fouls haunted the Gators
In Florida’s first loss of the season to Arizona, Chinyelu and Alex Condon reached the foul limit. Again, two Gators fouled out, leading to another loss.
This time around it was starting guards Lee and Boogie Fland. However, four Gators had at least four personal fouls to end the game, all of which were players on the starting lineup, leading to Isaiah Brown and Alex Lloyd seeing time on the court.
As a result, the Horned Frogs attacked the basket and had 33 free throw attempts to Florida’s 27. In the second half, they started 7 of 7 from the charity stripe.
TCU dominated down low
Despite the absence of sophomore center Malick Diallo due to injury, the Horned Frogs found success against the Gators’ frontcourt.
Jamie Dixon’s team finished with a 31-28 rebounding advantage, which marked the second time this season Florida lost the rebound battle.
Additionally, no one on Florida’s roster exceeded 10 rebounds, which is the first time this season that’s occurred. The Horned Frogs were physical throughout the entirety of the contest, and David Punch led TCU with 19 points and nine rebounds.
Urban Klavzar shined off the bench
Urban Klavzar was one of the few bright spots for the Gators and provided Florida with a career-high 20-points off the bench on 4-of-7 shooting from 3 and a perfect 6-for-6 at the line.
His deep three from the right wing gave the Gators a 40-35 advantage with 1:18 left in the first half as Fland and Lee struggled to stay on the court.
Klavzar logged his first points of the second half with a corner three to give the Gators a 64-62 lead with 9:25 left. Then, he logged 5 points in a 30-second span to fuel Florida’s 7-0 run with just under 6 minutes left in the game.
Florida will look to bounce back at 3 p.m. Friday against either Providence or Wisconsin in the consolation match of the Rady Children’s Invitational.
Contact Jeffrey Serber at Jserber@alligator.org. Follow him on X @JeffreySerber.
Jeffrey is the Fall 2025 enterprise and men's basketball beat reporter and a second-year journalism sports & media major. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with friends and family, and rooting for the Miami sports teams.
