Florida falls short to Iowa, exits NCAA Tournament in the second round

Despite the Benchmark International Arena being covered in Gator fans dressed in blue and white at tip-off, it was the Hawkeyes who got the last laugh.

After taking a 33-31 lead into the half, the Hawkeyes continued their ways in the second, making their first three shots from beyond the arc, capped off by Cooper Koch’s 3-pointer, giving Iowa its largest lead of the contest, 51-39, with 14:13 to go.

Following Thomas Haugh’s 3-pointer with 6:35 left that gave UF its first lead in about 29 minutes of game time, the Hawkeyes stuck in, and when they most needed it, down 72-70 with 8.9 seconds left, Alvaro Folgueiras drilled a corner 3-pointer, silencing the majority of the Florida crowd.

After the timeout, Xaivian Lee pushed the ball down the court with 4.5 seconds left, looking for an open shot, but there was no answer. He passed the ball to Haugh, but it was too late. 

“I would have preferred [Lee] to obviously get to the rim on that,” Florida head coach Todd Golden said. “I thought he had a good advantage on the guy that was defending him.”

The season was over, and Haugh, who may have played his last game as a Gator, went to his knees on the court. 

No. 9 Iowa (23-12) defeated No. 1 Florida (27-8) 73-72, completing the upset and sending the Gators back to Gainesville while punching its ticket to the Sweet 16 in Houston.

“I'm going to remember this feeling for a while,” junior forward Alex Condon said. “I'm just going to use it as motivation. It's going to make us better players individually just to know what this feeling is like, working hard all year to get into this position as a 1 seed and just letting it get away from us a little bit.”

Tavion Banks led Iowa with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting. He did a majority of his damage in the second half with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field.

The aforementioned Folgueiras finished the contest with 14 points on 3-of-5 shooting, including two 3-pointers.

Bennett Stirtz and Cooper Koch rounded out Iowa’s double-digit scoring efforts with 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Alex Condon and Lee were the sole Gators to maintain a consistent effort on offense.

The Aussie finished with a team-high 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting and seven assists. The junior forward did most of his damage in the second half with 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting. His layup with 2:40 left in the game gave the Gators a 69-67 lead.

Lee followed in pursuit with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting. His third and last 3-pointer of the game came off a Boogie Fland block and cut UF’s deficit to one with 8:16 left in the second half.

Haugh, while he did finish with 19 points, was limited to four points on 0-for-4 shooting in the first half. He did play a major role in Florida’s second-half comeback effort with 15 points in the second half, including a 3-pointer that cut the Gators' deficit to nine with 13:54 left in the second half.

“In the first half I was just out of it,” Haugh said. “I just feel bad, I didn't make any plays, didn't do anything to help the team out to win the first half.”

In addition to Haugh’s limited first half, Rueben Chinyelu’s inability to assert his dominance proved vital.

The junior center entered the contest second in the nation with 11.5 rebounds per game and set a program single-season record with 19 double-doubles. However, in Sunday’s contest, he was scoreless with one rebound, marking his lowest rebounding effort since Florida’s 93-87 loss to Arizona to open the season on Nov. 3.

Overall, the Gators, who entered the contest leading the nation in rebounds per game, offensive boards per game and rebound margin, finished tied at 27 in the battle on the boards.

“We were not strong enough around the rim in the first half, nor were we able to get any deep post catches,” Golden said.

With the 2025-26 season coming to an end, Florida faces the uncertainty of losing numerous key players to the NBA draft.

Contact Jeffrey Serber at Jserber@alligator.org. Follow him on X @JeffreySerber.

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