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.
Mississippi State: Hosts Georgia on Saturday.
Florida: At Kentucky on Saturday.
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