Florida Men’s Basketball Advances To SEC Tournament Semifinals

After passing Georgia in Round 2 of the SEC Tournament, the Gators stood on business once again against the Crimson Tide on Friday.

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The Florida men’s basketball team dominated No. 19 Alabama in the quarterfinals, 102-88, at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., to advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2019.

The six-seeded Gators (23-10) will play seven-seeded Texas A&M (20-13) at about 3:30 p.m. ET (ESPN) today for the right to advance to Sunday’s title game against the winner of the other semis between four-seeded Auburn (25-7) and nine seed Mississippi State (21-12). The Aggies eliminated two seed Kentucky earlier Friday.

Walter Clayton Jr. once again led Florida to victory by dropping 23 points on perfect free-throw shooting (11-11). Behind him were four other Gators in double figures, Zyon Pullin with 19, Tyrese Samuel scored 18, Will Richard had 10 and Alex Condon put up 12.

Ice Cold To Red Hot

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UF coach Todd Golden was forced to take an early timeout when his team gave up an 8-0 run to Alabama (21-11) in the first two minutes of the game

But everything began to flip when the Gators’ bench got involved. The Gators’ second unit outscored the Crimson Tide’s 14-3. Florida was able to take its first lead at 32-31 with 4:42 remaining in the first half.

From that point, the Gators were in charge. UF went on a 21-2 run to close out the half for a 48-33 lead. Florida was causing havoc on defense and getting out in transition. Bama went 1-for-10 in field goals during that stretch.

Keeping Foot On The Gas

Up by 15 points, it is easy to ease up on the intensity. But Florida came out even hotter.

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Samuel put the team on his back by scoring 10 points in the first five minutes of the half to allow the Gators to extend the lead to 24.

At the 10-minute mark, the Crimson Tide, which lost two of the three games vs. the Gators this season, tried to rally with a press and were able to cut it to a 14-point game. But their late push was not enough, as Clayton and Pullin continued to score and keep Bama at bay.

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The Aggies, who have won five in a row against UF, defeated the Gators 67-66 at College Station on Feb. 3 in the teams’ only meeting of the season. The Gators last played for the SEC tourney title was 2014.