In the first half of its rematch of the 2025 SEC Tournament Championship game, Florida basketball experienced yet another slow start. For the majority of the half, the Gators struggled to get anything to fall, starting 2-for-14 from 3-point range. But then, the tides began to shift.
With the score tied at 26 with 3:33 to go in the first half, sophomore guard Boogie Fland took over. He grabbed his first points of the game from beyond the arc and then drained another with 1:44 left in the first half to give the Gators a 34-28 lead. He finished the half with 10 points, all of which came in Florida’s 15-2 run to end the half up 13.
The Bronx, New York, native continued his red-hot play into the second half, putting the finishing touches on not only his best game as a Gator, but one of the best of his young collegiate career. Fland finished the game with a season-high 23 points on 9-for-13 shooting, including 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. He also grabbed three rebounds, five assists and four steals.
"For me I feel like it was big. It was a step in the right direction," Fland said post-game. "I feel like that little slump, it tests you mentally, but you got to be ready for basketball, the ups and downs is gonna come with it, and life in general. I feel like I battled through it, my teammates had my back and now we're here."
Fland’s electric performance helped the Gators (11-5, 2-1 SEC) rout the No. 21 Volunteers (11-5, 1-2 SEC) 91-67 in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.
Alongside Fland, junior Rueben Chinyelu had an impressive night. The 6-foot-10 big scored a season-high 17 points while grabbing 16 rebounds. He recorded his eighth double-double of the season and his 10th game this season with at least 10 rebounds.
Chinyelu was especially sharp in the second half, scoring eight straight points in a two-minute span to put the game completely out of reach with less than five minutes remaining.
At the heart of Florida’s success was opportunistic play and efficient rebounding. Throughout the first half, the Volunteers gave away possession 12 times, allowing the Gators to score 18 points off turnovers. During the final two minutes of the half, UT went scoreless while committing three turnovers.
That trend continued throughout the second half. Tennessee committed six more turnovers, leading to 12 more points for the Gators.
“We just valued the basketball," head coach Todd Golden said. "And then, this group, or defense has to lead to offense for us at times, and I thought we did a great job of that. Especially like our baseline out of bound defense was fantastic."
Meanwhile, Florida continued its dominance on the offensive boards, as it has for much of the season. The Gators grabbed seven offensive rebounds in the opening 20 minutes, converting eight second-chance points.
In the second half, UF continued to crash the offensive glass, adding five more rebounds and six more second-chance points. Overall, the Gators outrebounded the Volunteers 41 to 30.
"We just know that they play physical, they rebound the ball, just knowing that it's going to be a fight out there," Chinyelu said. "Just knowing that we're ready for the fight, we go to war and everybody was ready for that moment. Just go out there and do whatever we got to do to get our team going, our teammates going."
Four more Gators hit the double-digit scoring mark. Junior Thomas Haugh paced Florida with 37 minutes played, scoring 13 points while grabbing three rebounds and five steals. He also went 8-for-8 from the charity stripe.
Off the bench, junior Urban Klavzar was on point, scoring 15 points while shooting 3-for-9 from downtown. Junior Alex Condon scored 11 points, while senior Xaivian Lee added 10 points.
For the Volunteers, freshman Nate Ament was the only player to score more than 12 points. He finished with 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field.
Florida goes on the road to take on Oklahoma at 9 p.m. Tuesday in the Lloyd Noble Center.
Contact Ava DiCecca at adicecca@alligator.org. Follow her on X @avadicecca24.
Contact Max Bernstein at mbernstein@alligator.org. Follow him on X @maxbernstein23.
Ava is a sophomore sports journalism student and the Spring 2026 sports editor. Previously for The Alligator, she covered volleyball and did sports enterprise. Ava enjoys watching and playing sports in her free time and has been a Boston sports fan all her life. (Brad Marchand is still everything.)
Max is a junior sports journalism student in his seventh semester at The Alligator. He serves as The Alligator's assistant sports editor and football beat coordinator. He previously served as The Alligator's sports editor and as a reporter for football, women's tennis, volleyball, lacrosse and sports enterprise. He also has made multiple appearances on the Paul Finebaum Show. Max wants to shoutout his cats, Scooter and Zoe, and niche former Florida Panthers players (shoutout Maxim Mamin).
