Florida Gators thrash Prairie View A&M with historic 59-point win
Defending champions the Florida Gators began their NCAA Tournament campaign by thrashing Prairie View A&M 114-55 in Tampa on Friday, recording the second-largest victory margin in the competition’s history.
Boogie Fland scored 16 points to lead seven players in double figures for the top seeds.
The incredible 59-point winning margin falls short of only Loyola Chicago’s 111-42 victory over Tennessee Tech in 1963.
Todd Golden’s squad will now advance to face the ninth-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes in Sunday’s second round of the South Region.
Gators dominate with devastating first-half runs
Despite an early fightback from the 16th-seeded Panthers to tie the game at 15-all, the defending champions ruthlessly seized control.
Consecutive unanswered scoring streaks of 18 and 17 points quickly transformed a close contest into an insurmountable 60-21 half-time advantage.
The Gainesville outfit were remarkably efficient, shooting 75% before the break and finishing the game with a 64.3% overall success rate.
Florida’s staggering 114-point total represents the highest in the tournament since Tennessee tallied 121 against Long Beach State in 2007.
Frontcourt firepower overwhelms Panthers
Fland enjoyed a flawless shooting night, successfully converting all six of his field goal attempts.
He was heavily supported by a dominant frontcourt performance, with Rueben Chinyelu registering a double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds.
Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon also inflicted significant damage inside, contributing 14 and 13 points respectively.
Late in the second half, 7-foot-9 freshman Olivier Rioux delighted the sell-out crowd by getting in on the action with a towering putback dunk.
Historic heartbreak for Prairie View
The Southwestern Athletic Conference champions kept pace in the opening nine minutes purely by converting five early three-pointers.
Dontae Horne top-scored for the underdogs with 12 points, but they were ultimately overwhelmed by the vastly superior opposition.
The Panthers had reached March Madness via a First Four victory over Lehigh, a remarkable turnaround after managing just five wins last season.
However, the Texas-based school has now suffered two of the three largest defeats in tournament history, previously losing to Kansas by 58 points in 1998.