Florida hoping big man returns, hosts Merrimack

Florida hopes to get back to full strength when it hosts Merrimack Tuesday night in Gainesville before going into three consecutive neutral-site games.

The Gators (4-3) have been without Micah Handlogten their past two outings after the 7-foot-1 transfer from Marshall suffered an ankle injury Nov. 22 in the first minute of Florida's 86-71 win over Pitt. Losses to Baylor (95-91) and at Wake Forest (82-71) have followed.

Handlogten has averaged 8.0 points and 6.8 rebounds a game and has a huge defensive presence in the middle, blocking four shots in five games.

Freshman Thomas Haugh, who started in the loss to Wake, and Alex Condon assumed bigger roles in Handlogten's absence.

"We're asking a lot out of these young guys with Micah out, to step up and play big minutes," Florida coach Todd Golden said. "They're going to have their freshman moments."

Merrimack (4-5) won the 2023 Northeast Conference regular-season and tournament titles in its final year of its transition to Division I.

The Warriors beat Fairleigh Dickinson in the tourney final but were not eligible for the NCAA Tournament. Fairleigh Dickinson got the NCAA berth and stunned No. 1 seed Purdue in the first round.

"Four of the seven guys who played in that championship game are all back," Merrimack coach Joe Gallo said, "so we still have some of that DNA from last year's team with some of these new faces that we're really excited about."

Leading scorer Jordan Derkack (17.8 ppg) and Devon Savage (11.2) are key returnees, and freshman Adam Clark (12.2) is also averaging double figures.

The Warriors have lost three of their past four games but one was a 69-67 setback at Georgetown that featured a late controversial technical foul against Gallo.

"For him (the official) to do that and take the game out of the kids' hands was very unfortunate," Gallo said postgame.

—Field Level Media