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03/03 21:07 CST No. 5 Florida closes out home schedule with a 34-point drubbing
of Mississippi State
No. 5 Florida closes out home schedule with a 34-point drubbing of Mississippi
State
By MARK LONG
AP Sports Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) --- Alex Condon scored 26 points, Xaivian Lee added 19
and No. 5 Florida celebrated its first Southeastern Conference title since 2014
with a 108-74 romp over Mississippi State on Tuesday night.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey presented the Gators with the regular-season
trophy before their home finale, and Florida formally secured the outright
championship when Georgia closed out No. 16 Alabama earlier in the night.
Nonetheless, coach Todd Golden's team wanted to finish the season "the right
way" --- with a 10th consecutive win.
This one looked a little shaky early but ended like the others --- with the
Gators pulling away in the second half. It felt over when senior Micah
Handlogten scooped a ball heading out of bounds to Urban Klavzar for a corner
3-pointer that put Florida up 19 with a little more than 11 minutes remaining.
Golden won his 100th game at Florida (24-6, 15-2), becoming the fastest to
reach the milestone in school history and breaking the previous mark set by
Billy Donovan.
Rueben Chinyelu finished with 11 points and 16 rebounds for his 18th
double-double of the season, breaking the school record set by Bob Smyth in
1976.
Josh Hubbard led the Bulldogs (13-17, 5-12) with 21 points.
Playing without leading scorer Thomas Haugh (precaution), Florida fell behind
by 10 points in the early going. Mississippi State made seven consecutive shots
while building a 24-14 lead.
The Gators responded in a big way, though. They used an 18-0 run spanning six
minutes -- their longest in SEC play this season -- to flip the scoreboard and
start looking like the team that had won nine in a row by an average margin of
22 points.
Seven Florida players scored during the spurt. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, missed
11 consecutive shots.
The rest of the night was essentially another party in the O'Connell Center.
Florida, which handed out hands and T-shirts and cut down the nets following a
34-point drubbing of Arkansas, put on another scoring display against
Mississippi State.
Up next Mississippi State: Hosts Georgia on Saturday. Florida: At Kentucky on Saturday. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
Up next Mississippi State: Hosts Georgia on Saturday. Florida: At Kentucky on Saturday. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
