TAMPA, Fla. — Florida began its national title defense with the second-largest victory margin in NCAA tournament history, pounding 16th-seeded Prairie View A&M 114-55 on Friday night.
Boogie Fland scored 16 points to lead seven players in double figures for the top-seeded Gators (27-7), whose 59-point margin fell short of only Loyola Chicago’s 111-42 win over Tennessee Tech in 1963. Florida advanced to face the South Region’s No. 9 seed, Iowa, in the second round Sunday.
Florida’s 114 points were the most in the NCAA tournament since Tennessee had 121 against Long Beach State in 2007 in the round of 64, according to ESPN Research.
“I thought we made a big [statement],” Fland said. “We saw a couple of games before us, 1-16. So to set that record, I felt like it was big, and a big statement for the world for sure.”
Florida went on runs of 18-0 and 17-0 in the first half to turn a 15-all tie into a 60-21 lead at the break. The Gators shot 75% before halftime and 64.3% for the game against the Panthers (19-18).
Late in the second half, 7-foot-9 freshman Olivier Rioux — the world’s tallest teenager before he turned 20 last month — got in on the action with a putback dunk.
Fland made all six of his shots. Rueben Chinyelu had 14 points and 13 rebounds, while the other two members of a dominant frontcourt — Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon — finished with 14 and 13 points, respectively.
Prairie View didn’t have a 2-point basket through the first nine minutes, but kept pace early by converting five of its first seven 3-point attempts to pull even at 15-all.
Chinyelu scored nine points during the ensuing 18-0 run, and the rout was on in front of a sellout crowd in what essentially was a home game with coach Todd Golden’s squad, playing only a two-hour drive south of its campus in Gainesville.
“I think we had a 38-0 paint advantage in the first half, scoring-wise,” Golden said. “So, we weren’t settling. We were getting good shots. I thought we played with great purpose all night.”
Condon, Haugh, Chinyelu and Fland all reached double-figure scoring in the first half.
Prairie View made it to March Madness after going 5-27 a season earlier. The Panthers defeated Lehigh in the First Four. Prairie View has now endured two of the three largest losses in NCAA tournament history, according to ESPN Research; Prairie View lost to Kansas by 58 in 1998’s round of 64.
Dontae Horne scored 12 points for the Southwestern Athletic Conference champions.
“Tough game,” Prairie View A&M coach Byron Smith said, adding that the Gators were simply a “bigger, faster, quicker team.”
“Obviously, Florida’s size really caused some problems for us. They shot the ball at a really high percentage,” Smith said. “We got down a little bit early and were playing catch-up from behind most of the night. That’s a tough way to go.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
