{"id":177453,"date":"2026-03-04T06:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T06:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/177453\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T06:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T06:52:15","slug":"florida-basketball-wins-2026-sec-championship-makes-history-in-total-demolition-of-mississippi-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/177453\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida basketball wins 2026 SEC championship, makes history in total demolition of Mississippi State"},"content":{"rendered":"

Image Credit: UAA<\/a><\/p>\n

Bouncing back from an unexpected early hole, No. 5 Florida Gators basketball ensured no team could share its regular-season success, clinching the outright 2026 SEC championship before completing a 108-74 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Tuesday night inside the Stephen C. O\u2019Connell Center.<\/p>\n

Florida became the only claimant to the SEC crown by halftime of its tilt against Mississippi State as Georgia upset No. 16 Alabama, 98-88, removing UF\u2019s only competition for the title.<\/p>\n

The Gators (24-6, 15-2 SEC) had previously won at least a share of the SEC championship in their dominant 111-77 win over then-No. 20 Arkansas on Saturday, but head coach Todd Golden\u2019s squad was clearly motivated to complete the mission on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Winning its first league crown in 12 years, Florida scored 100+ points in consecutive SEC games for the second time in program history and first time since 1975. The Gators are also just the second SEC team in the last 65 years to win 10 straight league games in a single season by 9+ points, and they won consecutive league games by 30+ points for the first time since 2017.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at what went down as Florida soared on Senior Night with some Fastbreak Takeaways.<\/p>\n

It was over when \u2026 the Gators hit consecutive 3-pointers out of the corner with guards senior Xaivian Lee and junior Urban Klav\u017ear leading a 17-3 run \u2014 that included another Lee triple \u2014 to put Florida ahead by 25 points with 8 minutes to play. Junior forward Alex Condon scored seven straight points later in the second half, captaining a blistering 19-3 stretch that gave the Gators a game-high 37-point lead in the closing minutes.<\/p>\n

First half focus: Mississippi State took an early 10-point lead on the back of extremely efficient shooting, handing Florida its largest home deficit in 38 days to open the contest. The Gators\u2019 backcourt took over, though, leading an 18-0 run over 6 minutes of game clock, turning the game on its head by taking an eight-point lead. Freshman CJ Ingram II ignited the scoring stretch with consecutive 3-pointers. Florida tacked on an 11-2 run to move ahead by a half-high 14 points, ultimately leading by 12 at the break. The hosts outscored the visitors 33-11 over the final 11:28.<\/p>\n

Exceptional efforts: Condon dominated in both halves, posting a game-high 26 points with seven rebounds and three assists. He made 12 of 18 attempts inside the arc but went 2 of 5 from the free-throw line, committing four fouls. Lee flashed in the second half, finishing with 19 points, a game-high six assists, five rebounds and four steals without a turnover, though he did foul out. Klav\u017ear and sophomore G Boogie Fland each scored 10 points as they were among six players who posted double-digit totals in the contest.<\/p>\n

Junior center Rueben Chinyelu, who previously set the program record for most offensive rebounds in a single season, completed his 18th double-double of the campaign with 11 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks for good measure. He now holds the top spot for most double-doubles in a single season at Florida, tying a 50-year-old record.<\/p>\n

Sensational senior: Micah Handlogten earned the start in his final home game, nearly completing a double-double himself with 10 points and nine boards. The senior center also contributed three dimes and a block in 21 minutes, the third-longest amount of court time he\u2019s played this season.<\/p>\n

Important injury: Junior F Thomas Haugh did not play while nursing an ankle injury suffered on Feb. 25 at Texas. Haugh did not look like himself against Arkansas, and the precautionary rest should serve him well with the postseason approaching.<\/p>\n

Odds & ends: Florida won its first regular-season SEC title since 2014 \u2026 UF improved to 70-53 all-time against Mississippi State, 43-13 at home and 4-1 under Golden \u2026 the Gators outscored the Bulldogs by 44 points over the final 31:28 \u2026 Golden became the fourth coach in SEC history to win 100+ games within four seasons at one school \u2026 Golden won his 100th game in 139 attempts, besting Billy Donovan\u2019s pace by 15 contests \u2026 Florida improved to 21-1 when leading at halftime, 24-1 when leading with 5 minutes left, 23-4 when outrebounding an opponent, 9-1 when forcing more turnovers, 19-1 when shooting 45% or better from the field, 22-0 when outshooting an opponent, 13-1 when outshooting an opponent from 3-point range, 17-2 when winning the bench scoring battle, 21-2 when 4+ players score in double figures and 15-0 when 5+ players score in double figures<\/p>\n

What it means: The Gators did what they were supposed to do against an inferior Bulldogs team. With Haugh sidelined, it took Florida a bit to catch its rhythm offensively, but once the ball began finding the bottom of the net, it never stopped over the duration of the contest. The test for the Gators will be far greater in their regular-season finale, but having clinched the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament, rest is ahead in the not-too-distant future.<\/p>\n

UF was astoundingly dominant inside, +27 on the boards (53-26) and +34 in paint scoring (70-36) while creating a +12 margin in second-chance points (18-6). It bested MSU at nearly every phase of the game, even reducing its miscues to just five turnovers in the contest.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next? Florida will conclude the regular season at Rupp Arena when it faces Kentucky on Saturday. The game will tip off at 4 p.m. ET and air live nationally on ESPN. The Gaotrs won 92-83 over the Wildcats back on Feb. 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image Credit: UAA Bouncing back from an unexpected early hole, No. 5 Florida Gators basketball ensured no team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3107,3109,83909,28,30,29,6086,62,29832,3115,3116,20054,29868],"class_list":{"0":"post-177453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-alex-condon","9":"tag-boogie-fland","10":"tag-cj-ingram","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-mississippi-state-bulldogs","15":"tag-sec","16":"tag-stephen-c-oconnell-center","17":"tag-thomas-haugh","18":"tag-todd-golden","19":"tag-urban-klavzar","20":"tag-xaivian-lee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}