Updated March 21, 2026, 10:53 a.m. ET
The Florida Gators came, saw and conquered in their NCAA Tournament first-round matchup with the Prairie View A&M Panthers on Friday night, throttling the 16th-seeded opposition in a 114-55 obliteration that marks the largest margin of victory ever between a 1 and 16 seed and the second largest in the history of the Big Dance.
March Madness is truly in full gear.
Todd Golden’s guys never trailed in this one, but did let the Panthers claw back from an early deficit to tie things up with just over six minutes elapsed. However, Florida put its foot on the pedal and never looked back in its 59-point triumph.
Boogie Fland led all scorers with 16 points while Rueben Chinyelu recorded yet another double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Also, Olivier Rioux made his first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance with just under two minutes remaining — in the process, becoming the tallest player to ever appear in the Big Dance — and managed to also score a bucket.
Top-seeded UF will face the 9th-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes, who snuck past the Clemson Tigers, in the next round on Sunday at a time to be determined.
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Below is a look at three key takeaways from Florida’s bludgeoning of Prairie View in the round of 64.
Florida opened up by scoring the first seven points of the game before Prairie View was able to find the bucket, but the Panthers caught fire from the outside, notching their first 15 points all on 3-pointers and subsequently tying that game at the 13:41 mark.
The Gators quickly turned things around, embarking on a 45-6 run to end the half with a 60-21 lead — the most points scored in the first half all season. The beatdown did not stop there.
Golden’s gang allowed the Panthers to score more in the second half than in the first while falling short of their 60-point pace from the opening 20 minutes, but still managed to record a historic margin of victory. Had the skipper not emptied his bench in the waning minutes of the game, it could have been even uglier.
It was an absolute slaughter in the paint and on the glass
The best frontcourt in the country continued to live up to its billing, outrebounding the No. 16 seed by a massive 54-20 margin (16-9 on the offensive glass) while also outscoring them, 64-10, in the paint. Florida scored 23 second-chance points to just nine for Prairie View.
It was Chinyelu’s 13 boards that paced the Gators, while Micah Handlogten just missed double digits with nine. Of the 14 players who appeared on the court Friday night for the Orange and Blue, only one did not grab a rebound: Cooper Josefsberg.
Prairie View never had a chance.
Florida made its 3-pointers, took much better care of the ball
The biggest concern with this Gators squad is their ability to drain the outside shot, and they shot a robust 45.5% (10-for-22) from downtown on the evening, with four guards — Fland, Xaivain Lee, Urban Klavžar and Isaiah Brown — carrying almost the entire load. A few late-game bricks pulled their percentage under the 50% mark, but nobody is complaining.
The other Achilles heel this team has lately is in limiting turnovers, which was a significant issue in their two SEC Tournament affairs. In this game, Florida turned the ball over just seven times — three in the first half and four in the second — allowing just six total points off their giveaways.
On the other side of that coin, the Gators only took the ball away seven times themselves, but still managed 13 points off those opportunities, as well as 16 fast-break points — compared to just two for the Panthers.
Truly a dominant performance for the Orange and Blue.
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