Florida Men’s Basketball Surges Past Maryland Into Elite Eight

Gators men’s basketball team’s second-half surge against No. 4 seed Maryland in the Sweet 16 sent Florida to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2017.

Six Gators scored in the double-digits en route to the 87 – 71 victory in San Francisco. Senior guard Will Richard led the team with 15 points.

Top seed Florida (33-4) now faces No. 3 seed Texas Tech (28-8) in the West Region final on Saturday.

woke up with this moment on our minds⚡️ pic.twitter.com/YLJzo58AaM

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) March 28, 2025

After a string of bad luck for the Terrapins at the end of the regular season, a buzzer-beater fell their way in the round of 32 against 12-seeded Colorado State. Freshman center Derik Queen, a five-star recruit and Baltimore native, hit a buzzer-beating shot to send Maryland to the Sweet 16 for the first time in nine years.

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Florida ended their historic run, but the 14-point win was a toss-up until the final 10 minutes. It was a close first half, ending with Florida up 40-38. The Gators turned the ball over 13 times in the first half. Maryland (27-9) scored 12 of their first-half points from those turnovers. Florida got lazy, according to head coach Todd Golden:

“We got a little lazy in the first half. We were kind of being loose with the ball, not really paying attention to the guards coming from behind, tapping the ball out of our hands and stuff like that. But we picked it up the second half. We got together. We talked about it and said in order for us to win the game we have to take care of the ball.”

Florida also got into trouble early with double-digit fouls in the first half. Maryland’s ‘Crab Five’ had a cleaner first half. No one on the UMD starting five got into foul trouble. Super beneficial for the Terps and their weak bench, who get little minutes.

Despite the high turnovers and fouls, Florida came out of the half up two.

Second Half

Coming out of the break, the Gators took charge. Fifteen points in the first six minutes, including two Alijah Martin three-pointers, put UF up 55 – 44. Center Rueben Chinyelu bodied his way in the post for three consecutive buckets during the scoring run. He showed low-court dominance all day, finishing the night with 10 points and eight rebounds.

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“We were able to re-calibrate a little bit and the message was simple. We had to keep defending and obviously stay aggressive on the glass, but we had to do a better job of taking care of the ball,” Golden said. “We were elite in the second half.”

The Gators cleaned up their turnovers, too, giving it over just four times in the second half.

Queen was the only man keeping Maryland in this game. After a slow first half, he turned on the heat in the second, finishing with 27 points, shooting 8-17. Queen’s push wasn’t enough. Florida kept their foot on the gas all half, with Maryland head coach Kevin Willard succumbing to the loss and benching his starters with 1:40 remaining in the game.

Takeaways

Two key factors in Florida’s win: rebounds and bench points. The Gators outrebounded the Terps 42 to 20. Maryland is a big squad too, their tallest man being Queen at 6-toot-10. Florida was just relentless. 6th man Thomas Haugh led the team with nine boards. A reason for UF’s relentlessness could be its deep bench, which flexed 29 points opposed to Maryland’s three. Willard, whose starting five averaged 30 minutes each this season, commented on the depth of the Gators’ roster.

“Florida is really good and they’re deep,” Willard said. “I think their bench was what really wore us down.”

First-Team All-American Walter Clayton Jr. was just 3-9 in FG with 13 points. Clayton had little attempts the second half, but it didn’t matter for Florida. It’s a testament of how well rounded this squad is. One of the best point guards in college basketball was a non-factor in the second half of a Sweet 16 matchup, yet the Gators still outscored their opponent 47-33 in the latter half.

Forward Alex Condon went down early, reinjuring his ankle that caused him to miss some time in the regular season. He came back later in the game, but its something to monitor going into the Elite Eight this weekend.

No. 3-ranked Florida takes on No. 9-ranked Texas Tech at 6:09 p.m. Saturday on TBS/truTV and 103.7-FM. The winner advances to next weekend’s Final Four in San Antonio.