They're Elite: Florida Gators keep on dancing with win over Maryland
The Florida Gators are headed to the Elite Eight for the 10th time in school history. UF, the top seed in the West Region, used a dominant second-half performance to blow out fourth-seeded Maryland, 87-71, in a Sweet 16 game Thursday night in San Francisco, Calif.
Florida, which led just 40-38 at the half, improved to 33-4. The Terps, now, 27-9, had not lost a game by more than six points the entire season.
Six Gators scored in double-figures with senior guard Will Richard leading the team with 15 points. The Gators shot 50 percent from the field while Maryland connected on only 40.7 percent of its attempts. Meanwhile, Florida dominated the Terps on the glass, finishing with a staggering 42-20 edge in rebounds.
This will be Florida’s first Elite Eight appearance since 2017.
These were some of the key moments from Thursday’s game:
-With 4:57 left in regulation, Maryland had used a 6-0 run to get back to within 12. But then Florida guard Denzel Aberdeen connected on a clutch 3-pointer to give the Gators a little more cushion entering the final stretch.
-At the 8:13 mark of the second half, Gators center Rueben Chinyelu, a 57 percent foul shooter, went 2 of 2 at the line. It came in the middle of a 13-2 Gators run that helped them stretch the lead to 18 points.
-With 14:19 left, the Gators took their first double-digit lead of the game on an Alijah Martin 3-pointer. That made the score 55-44. Maryland, however, quickly responded with a 5-0 run.
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-During a span of 35 seconds in the second half, Chinyelu had two dunks and a defensive rebound. His second slam during that sequence, which came on an assist from All-American guard Walter Clayton, put Florida ahead 50-42 with 16:22 left in the game.
-With 1:16 until halftime, Martin’s 3-pointer from the top of the key on an assist from forward Thomas Haugh played a big role in UF taking a lead into the break. It was UF’s sixth 3-pointer of the game.
-At the 6:58 mark of the first half, Richard knocked down his second 3-pointer of the game to stop a solid Maryland run and put Florida back in front, 27-24.
-With 11:57 left in the opening half, Haugh passed to Richard, then set a screen for him. That gave Richard some space and he buried a 3-pointer at the top of the key to give UF an early 18-9 lead. It was the Gators’ ninth straight point on Richard’s first bucket in the game.
