Score and conclusions for Florida vs. Tennessee: The No. 8 Gators destroy The No. 1 Vols’ historic victory for the program

The No. 8 Florida Gators defeated the No. 1 Tennessee Volunteers 73-43 wire-to-wire in one of the most dominant games in Florida Gators basketball history Tuesday night at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. The victory was the third-largest victory against a No. 1 team in Division I basketball history (30 points) and the Gators’ first victory over a No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 outside of the NCAA Tournament.

Florida defeated a top-ranked team by more than thirty points for the first time in fifty-six years (1968) and defeated a top-ranked team for the first time in seventeen years (2007 NCAA Tournament). With all of their victories coming by a margin of 18+ points at a rate of 28.25 points per game, the Gators advanced to 14-1 (1-1 SEC) on the season, including 8-0 at home.

Tuesday night, Florida never fell behind, taking a 12-0 lead in the first half, leading by 19 points at the half, and going on an 18-3 run to take a 36-point lead late in the second half. This is true even if the Gators’ straw that stirs the pot, senior point guard Walter Clayton Jr., scored a season-low 7 points on 3 of 10 shooting with four turnovers and four fouls. The poorest shooting percentage by a top-seeded team in Division I history was 21.4%, which UF held UT to.

Prior to Tuesday night’s defeat, Tennessee, the nation’s final unbeaten team, was dominated by Florida in every way. With Fastbreak Takeaways, let’s examine one of the biggest successes in the program’s history.

The Gators led by a game-high 36 points with 6:14 remaining after sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu banged home an alley oop from sophomore forward Alex Condon as an exclamation point during an 18-3 run. During that time, sophomore F. Thomas Haugh scored five points in a row. With an 11-1 run to essentially put the game out of reach five minutes into the second half, Florida maintained its early-game paint dominance.

Focus of the first half: UF won almost every early skirmish to take a 12-0 lead as Tennessee went scoreless for more than 6:41 in a defensive slugfest. A 10-1 scoring run over the last 5:21 gave the hosts an unexpected 19-point lead at the half, however an 8-0 run on two 3-pointers put the Gators back to that lead halfway through the quarter. Florida had a 24-6 scoring and 30-19 rebounding lead inside, making their domination in the paint vital. The Gators had a 12-0 lead on the fastbreak and converted 11 offensive rebounds into 12 second-chance points. The Vols only had one assist on four completed baskets during that time, and they missed all 15 of their triples. In 11 years (2013), UT’s 15 points were the fewest that UF had given an SEC opponent.

Extraordinary efforts: Condon recorded a double-double with 12 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists. Despite being Florida’s third-leading scorer, he had a significant impact on the game. Junior guard Denzel Aberdeen, who finished second in scoring with 16 points on 5 of 11 shooting, had an equally significant influence. Aberdeen came off the bench to make sure the program didn’t miss the beat, even though Clayton was in early foul trouble despite the Gators having a double-digit lead (and subsequently struggling throughout the game). For good measure, redshirt senior G Alijah Martin finished the game with a game-high 18 points and 6 rebounds.

Results and odds: Florida defeated Tennessee 28–25 at the O’Dome, improving their record to 60–81 overall. Since 2018, the Gators have a 3-8 record versus the Vols, with all three victories being at home. This is UF’s first victory outside of the NCAA Tournament, and they are now 3-17 overall against the top 25 AP teams, 1-5 in the O’Dome. With 16 consecutive victories, Florida has now gone 22-1 at home over the past two seasons, the longest winning streak in the SEC.

While leading for 38:58 and never falling behind, the Gators defeated the Vols in field goal shooting (.397-.214), 3-point shooting (.300-.138), free-throw shooting (.765-.600), rebounding (55-38), offensive rebounding (19-13), second-chance points (19-4), bench points (25-7), points in the paint (40-14), fastbreak points (22-3), and assists (14-6). Golden’s Florida advanced to 44-9 at the half, 50-5 with five minutes remaining, 38-8 while outrebounding, 48-6 when outshooting, 43-8 when outshooting from downtown, and 34-14 when winning the fight for bench scoring.