Entering Sunday, Florida men’s basketball trailed its all-time series with Baylor 1-3, and the Gators’ struggles against the Bears continued in their first showing on the hardwood this season.
Florida overcame a slow start and forced the game to overtime with a last-second jumper made by Denzel Aberdeen, but its comeback efforts fell short with a lackluster 4-for-29 shooting clip from 3-point range.
Behind a 31-point game from Baylor guard Kayden Mingo, the Gators fell to the Bears 82-76 in overtime at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on Sunday.
“1-for-13 from three in the first half on what we thought were about 10 uncontested looks … we left a lot of points on the board that way,” head coach Todd Golden said. “I thought that we started pressing a little bit; we allowed those misses to affect us in the other parts of the game that don’t require talent.”
It was Florida’s first exhibition game in Jacksonville since beating Eckerd College 91-63 on Oct. 26, 2016, and Boogie Fland, Aberdeen, Rueben Chinyelu, Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon got the start.
The Gators returned all three of their All-SEC frontcourt players ahead of the season, but both teams made life difficult for opposing offenses early. Florida and Baylor both struggled to finish possessions at the rim, and only 16 points were scored through the first 8 minutes of play.
“I just didn’t think we were really able to ever find a rhythm,” Golden said. “I thought there were multiple opportunities in the first half.”
Florida’s elite rebounding is what extended possessions and kept it in the game even when shots weren’t falling.
The Gators paced the nation last season with a plus-14.7 rebounding margin, and they continued their dominance on the boards Sunday. Florida out-rebounded Baylor 25-13 in the first half, and Chinyelu, last season’s Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, finished with 15 of the Gators’ 46 rebounds.
Condon was efficient in the paint as well, pacing the Gators’ rebounding efforts in the first half with six boards. He finished with 9 rebounds and 13 points on 6-for-11 shooting, and he paced the team in assists (4).
“The first-half rebounding effort I was pleased with,” Golden said. “I think we were up plus 10 on the glass in the first half. Obviously, the last 25 minutes was really, really poor on the glass. To be minus five against a team that’s playing a little undersized is an issue that we’ve got to address.”
Baylor jumped out to an early 6-0 run behind strong shooting by freshman point guard Dylan Mingo, while Florida struggled offensively. The Gators missed 12 straight shots and started just 2-for-15 from the field. They also missed their first nine attempts from 3-point range.
But trailing 13-8, Florida went on a 12-0 scoring run. Condon put back a missed Haugh 3-pointer, seemingly jumpstarting the Gators’ offense, and Haugh sank a pair of free throws to cut Baylor’s lead to one, 13-12.
Haugh made a block on the other end to regain possession, and that’s when he got hot. The 6-foot-9 senior hit Florida’s first 3-pointer of the game to regain the lead, and Chinyelu added three points to extend the Gators’ advantage to 18-13.
Fland made three straight layups, but the Bears went on a 7-0 surge in the final minutes of the first half. After the first 20 minutes of play, Florida led 28-25.
But straight out of half, Baylor tacked on five unanswered points behind a Kayden Mingo 3-pointer. The Bears found their stride as Florida continued to miss from deep, pushing to a 37-34 lead with the Gators sitting 1-for-15 from three.
Kayden Mingo continued effectively driving to the basket as Baylor jumped ahead 44-38, but Chinyelu scored four straight points to close the gap. AJ Brown also knocked down a 3-pointer for his first and only score of the game as it neared the final 10 minutes. It was the only shot made by Florida’s bench in the loss.
“We went 1-for-14 from the floor from the bench, so you know that’s never going to be good enough,” Golden said. “Our effort was in the right place in terms of what we wanted to try to do … We try to play the right way, but we’ve got to make shots too. That’s a big part of this game.”
Fland drove in for a lay up that tied the game 47-47, and Florida’s 13-3 run helped keep pace with an efficient Bears offense that went 4-for-6 from 3-point range in the first 12 minutes of the second half.
Every time Baylor began to pull away by multiple possessions, the Gators had an answer. Haugh splashed his second 3-pointer of the game to cut the Bears’ lead to 57-56, but as the game leaked into its final stages, Florida went 1-for-9 from the field. Baylor capitalized on free throw opportunities as well, shooting 25-for-32 from the charity stripe.
Haugh made a pair of free throws to pull Florida within two, 62-60, with just over three minutes to play, and Aberdeen tied the game with a layup. Trailing 68-66, Aberdeen stepped up and sank a game-tying jumper with less than one second remaining, sending the exhibition to overtime.
Fland knocked down a 3-pointer and made a free throw in overtime, but Kayden Mingo answered with a crucial 3-pointer of his own to take a 79-74 lead. He paced the Bears in points (31) and assists (4) in the win.
For Florida, Haugh, who led the team in points per game last season (17.1), headlined the scoring efforts with 19 points. He went just 4-for-13 from the field, though, and nine of his points came from free throws.
Aberdeen scored six first-half points, but all six came courtesy of free throws. He shot 0-for-5 from the field and 0-for-3 from 3-point range in the first half, finishing with 15 points on 3-for-17 shooting. He also went 0-for-10 from 3-point range.
“I thought he was not good today,” Golden said. “I think he needs to be better … You know, first game back, I’m sure there was a lot of emotions for him just trying to get back comfortable. He’ll play better moving forward.”
Urban Klavžar, the 2026 Sixth-Man of the Year, struggled to find his footing from beyond the arc. He missed all five of his 3-point attempts and wasn’t able to score through 20 minutes of playing time.
“Those guys, specifically Urb [Urban Klavžar], he had an off night by his standards,” Golden said. “He had really good looks and he just wasn’t able to capitalize.”
Next, Florida will host Stetson in an exhibition game at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.
Contact Curan Ahern at cahern@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @CuranAhern.
Curan is a senior sports journalism student in his sixth semester at The Alligator. He is currently a sports editor and football beat reporter for the Gators and the Jaguars. He previously served as a men's tennis and sports enterprise reporter, and he is pursuing a public relations minor.
