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In a commanding display, Florida kicked off its defense of the national title with a resounding 114-55 victory over Prairie View A&M, marking the second-largest win in NCAA Tournament history. This dominant performance unfolded on Friday night in Tampa, Florida.
Leading the charge for the top-seeded Gators, who now boast a 27-7 record, was Boogie Fland with 16 points. Remarkably, seven Gators scored in double figures. The 59-point triumph is second only to Loyola Chicago’s historic 111-42 victory over Tennessee Tech in 1963. With this win, Florida advances to the South Region’s second round to face the No. 9 seed, Iowa, this Sunday.
Florida’s offensive prowess was on full display as they embarked on two lengthy first-half scoring runs, 18-0 and 17-0, transforming a close 15-15 game into a commanding 60-21 lead by halftime. The Gators were unstoppable, shooting 75% in the first half and finishing the game with a 64.3% shooting percentage. Meanwhile, Prairie View A&M, the 16th seed, concluded their season with a 19-18 record.
While other top seeds like Duke and Michigan encountered challenges in their opening games, Florida faced no such difficulties. Duke had a tough matchup against Siena, and Michigan struggled to distance themselves from Howard in the first half. In stark contrast, Florida’s performance was seamless.
“I think we made quite a statement,” said Fland. “After watching some earlier 1-16 matchups, setting this record felt significant. It’s a bold message to the world, no doubt.”
Late in the second half, 7-foot-9 freshman Olivier Rioux — the world’s tallest teenager before he turned 20 last month — got in on the action with a putback dunk.
Fland made all six of his shots. Rueben Chinyelu had 14 points and 13 rebounds, while the other two members of a dominant frontcourt — Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon — finished with 14 and 13 points, respectively.
Prairie View, a 35 1/2-point underdog according to BetMGM Sportsbook, didn’t have a 2-point basket through the first nine minutes, but kept pace early by converting five of its first seven 3-point attempts to pull even at 15-all.
Chinyelu scored nine points during the ensuing 18-0 run, and the rout was on before a sellout crowd in what essentially was a home game with coach Todd Golden’s squad playing only a two-hour drive south of its campus in Gainesville.
“I think we had a 38-0 paint advantage in the first half, scoring-wise,” Golden said. “So we weren’t settling. We were getting good shots. I thought we played with great purpose all night.”
Condon, Haugh, Chinyelu and Fland all reached double-figure scoring in the first half.
Prairie View, a historically Black school located outside of Houston, made it to March Madness after going 5-27 a season earlier. The Panthers defeated Lehigh in the First Four and weren’t strangers to facing teams from major conferences after having lost on the road to Texas A&M, Missouri, LSU and Oklahoma State early this season.
Donate Horne scored 12 points for the Southwestern Athletic Conference champions.
“Tough game,” Prairie View A&M coach Byron Smith said, adding the Gators were simply a “bigger, faster, quicker team.”
“Obviously Florida’s size really caused some problems for us. They shot the ball at a really high percentage,” Smith said. “We got down a little bit early and were playing catch-up from behind most of the night. That’s a tough way to go.”
Golden makes an early tweak
After Prairie View made five of its first seven 3-point attempts, Golden adjusted Florida’s defense. The Panthers went 1 of 15 behind the arc from there, finishing 6 of 22.
“We didn’t do a job in the first couple of minutes of guarding the 3-point line, and once we righted that we accomplished what we needed to,” Golden said.
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