Florida’s eight straight victory was forged in a second-half defensive clampdown that held the Longhorns<\/a> without a field goal over the final 7:27 while the Gators<\/a> outscored Texas 48-32 after the intermission. Florida’s performance reinforces its identity. Defense first. Opportunistic offense second.<\/p>\n As the Gators position for an SEC title push and favorable NCAA seeding, their outing in Austin serves as a reminder of how dangerous this team can be in March. Here is what Todd Golden, Alex Condon and Boogie Fland had to say after the win.<\/p>\n Todd Golden’s opening statement<\/p>\n “Incredibly proud of our group. I thought we did a great job being resilient tonight. Credit to Texas. They’re an incredibly tough club. I think they’re really good. The type of team that can make a deep run in March.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n “They’ve done a really good job over the course of the year, similar to how I think we have, of figuring out their personnel and figuring out how they play together. They’ve got a really a lot of really nice pieces. They play with a lot of purpose and for a majority of the game, I thought they were the tougher team.<\/p>\n “But again, credit to our guys down the stretch. I thought the last 12 minutes of the game, we did a really good job of pushing through and kind of wearing them down a little bit. And we just did a much better job defensively than the second half, which opened up transition for us. Did a much better job taking care of the basketball, which is a huge key for us.<\/p>\n “One area where we were deficient was on the defensive glass in the second half, but again, credit to them. I thought Matas (Vokietaitis) was really tough to keep off the glass. (Dailyn) Swain did a good job. I think (Chendall) Weaver is a really big-time winning player. Didn’t score, but always gets in there and gets second chances and guards really hard. The type of guy you want to have on your team.<\/p>\n “So, again, a really good basketball game. I thought we did a good job down the stretch of extending the lead and not giving them any hope or any belief in the last two minutes that they’d come back, and this is a huge win for us going down stretch in conference play.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Golden on defensive surge in second-half<\/p>\n “From a defensive standpoint, I thought Texas did a really good job in the first half of making individual plays one on one. Tramon Mark was a problem for us in the first half. We let him get three 3s made. But, again, he was making tough step-back 3s, but we weren’t contesting quite well enough and he got comfortable.<\/p>\n They only had two assists for the game. They were making a lot of one-on-one plays, and that’s kind of how they play. They don’t turn it over very often, generally. And Swain and Mark and big Matas are really, really hard to guard. And they just, they outplayed us in the first half.<\/p>\n We obviously challenged our guys pretty strongly at halftime about guarding your yard and doing a better job on the defensive end. And obviously, that flipped for us. We guarded really, really well in the second half, held the 35% from the field, only let him make one 3.”<\/p>\n Golden on hot shooting performance<\/p>\n “When our guards are banging shots like that, we’re going to be really tough to beat, and it allowed us to run away from them down the stretch.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Golden on grinding down Texas with physical defense<\/p>\n “I thought there was a little bit of a moment where we were starting to get some steals, some runouts, and kind of hurt their spirit a little bit. I think our depth really showed up. I thought our bench did a great job. I thought Micah Handlogten had one of his best defensive games of the year. I thought we wore them down, made it a little more difficult for them to execute, and we took advantage of it. We were making a lot of shots on the stretch, also.”<\/p>\n Alex Condon on third consecutive 20-point game<\/p>\n “I’ve found a rhythm these last few games. My teammates are getting me the ball and trusting me to make the right plays. I didn’t feel like I forced anything tonight and just let the game come to me.”<\/p>\n Boogie Fland on team’s second-half revival<\/p>\n “We know they’re a good offensive team. We\u00a0 just had to settle in and chip away at it.”<\/p>\n Follow us\u00a0@GatorsWire<\/a>\u00a0on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>, and like our page on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of\u00a0Florida Gators<\/a>\u00a0news, notes and opinions.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772126348_763_82604684007-20250322-t-011042-z-779806020-mt-1-usatoday-25734617-rtrmadp-3-ncaabasketballncaatournam.webp\")