About two hours before tipoff, Florida’s Thomas Haugh was ruled out of Tuesday's game against Mississippi State, marking the first time he missed a game in his career, and one that could have been his last at home.
As a result, Micah Handlogten, who was honored 30 minutes before tipoff alongside fellow senior Xaivian Lee for Senior Day, made his second start of the season. With this unfamiliar lineup, the Gators struggled to start the game, letting the Bulldogs convert seven of their first eight field goal attempts, climbing to a 24-14 lead with 11:33 before the half.
But from that point on, Florida took control of the contest, answering with an 18-0 run over the following six minutes, giving the Gators a 32-24 advantage with 6:10 left in the first half. UF went on to finish the half with its largest lead of the game, 47-35.
The Gators then hit cruise control in the second half, as No. 5 Florida (24-6, 15-2 SEC) prevailed 108-74 over Mississippi State (13-17, 5-12 SEC). With the win, UF secured an outright Southeastern Conference regular-season title, and head coach Todd Golden secured his 100th win at Florida, becoming the fastest in program history to reach this milestone.
“I think it’s more of a reflection of the guys that we have in our program and the job our staff has done over the first four years,” Golden said.”I’m proud of the organization that we have. What we’re doing and we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.”
The night finished with a Cooper Josefsberg 3-pointer, with 55 seconds left in the game, marking the junior’s first points in college basketball.
Alex Condon led the Gators with 26 points on 12-of-19 shooting, marking his fourth 20-point performance in his last five outings.
At the break, the Aussie led the Gators with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting. His slam dunk from a Boogie Fland lob gave the Gators an eight-point advantage with 4:27 before the break. In the second half, he recorded 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including an and-one poster on King Grace to put UF up 86-63 with 6:41 left in the contest.
“He’s done a great job of taking what the defense gives up, playing poised,” Golden said. “What’s been great is his growth and ability to eat that space and what the defense gives him in the paint.”
Lee followed in pursuit with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting and a team-high six assists.
He did a majority of his damage in the second half with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting. His 3-pointer with 10:29 left in the game marked the Toronto native’s 1,500th career point. He also had an and-one to give the Gators a 56-40 lead to open the second half. His night finished with 4:02 left in the game after reaching the foul limit
Rueben Chinyelu grabbed his 18th double-double of the season with 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting and a team-high 16 boards. The junior center tied a single-season program record for double-doubles set by Bob Smyth’s 18 throughout the 1975-76 campaign.
The aforementioned Handlogten grabbed 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting and nine rebounds, marking his first double-digit scoring effort since he recorded 10 points against Saint Francis on Dec. 17.
Fland rounded out Florida’s scorers with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
At the break, the Arkansas transfer had 7 points on 3-of-3 shooting. His sole steal at the break led to an Isaiah Brown dunk that put the Gators up nine points with 2:47 before the half.
Off the bench, Urban Klavžar logged 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting. His sole 3-pointer of the game gave the Gators a 75-56 advantage with 11:18 left in the game. The junior guard extends his streak to 20-straight games with at least one make from beyond the arc.
Isaiah Brown recorded 9 points on 4-of-7 shooting. He led Florida’s reserves with seven points at the break on 3-of-5 shooting. His 3-pointer with 3:31 left in the first half put the Gators up 39-31.
CJ Ingram, who recorded his most playtime off the bench this season with 13 minutes and a season-high 8 points. At the break, he recorded six points that came from back-to-back 3-pointers, cutting UF’s deficit to one with 8:35 left in the first half and cheating a 9-0 run.
“CJ is a guy that’s really capable of playing at a lot of places,” Golden said. “He’s had great moments earlier in the year. He’s had great moments in practice. He’s a guy that we hope to be a key cog in our program for an extended period of time.”
Next, Florida travels to Lexington to face Kentucky (19-10, 10-6 SEC) to close out the regular season at 4 p.m.
Contact Jeffrey Serber at Jserber@alligator.org. Follow him on X @JeffreySerber.
Jeffrey is the spring 2026 men's basketball beat reporter and a second-year journalism sports & media major with a media, management and production minor. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with friends and family, and rooting for the Miami sports teams
