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No. 1 Florida Tops No. 14 Miami in Orion180 Tipoff Classic
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- No. 1 Florida Tops No. 14 Miami in Orion180 Tipoff Classic
(IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect)
The No. 1 Florida Gators men's basketball team is off to a 1-0 start after taking down the No. 14 Miami Hurricanes, 77-67.
Todd Golden's squad has a great group of returning players , and that core guided them to a 10-point victory in Tampa .
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Thomas Haugh didn't lead all scorers, but he scored a team-high 19 points and had the game's only double-double of the night.
His 10 rebounds weren't enough to lead the way, though, as reigning Defensive Player of the Year Rueben Chinyelu grabbed 14 boards to go along with six points.
Florida shot 43% from the field, but most impressively, 42% from distance. The Gators were 11-for-26 on their three-point attempts while Miami was just 4-for-17.
In the end, the Gators turned the ball over two more times than the Hurricanes, so that's something to work on for this team moving forward, but it's important to remember that this is a huge ranked win to get in the first regular season game of the 2026-27 season.
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Florida never looked back after leading by 10 at the half
Fans at the Benchmark International Arena saw the Gators lead 46-36 at halftime, and even though both teams finished with 31 in the final 20 minutes, the Hurricanes had found themselves in too deep a hole.
Acaden Lewis had a game-high 24 points as he shot 9-for-20 from the field.
Shelton Henderson led the way for Miami with nine rebounds, though the sophomore struggled big time as he made just two of his 13 field goals.
Combined, the Hurricanes' starting five was 3-for-11 from distance. That's simply not going to cut it, especially against a Florida squad that saw Haugh hit four three-pointers himself.
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Interestingly, not a single player in Miami's starting five finished with more than one assist. On the other end, all of the Gators had at least two assists, with Haugh and Boogie Fland leading the way with four each.
Speaking of Fland, the junior scored 12 points on the night, six of which came from the charity stripe.
Fland was one of three Gators to finish in double digits. The third was none other than Alex Condon, who dropped 11 points and seven rebounds in 26 minutes, by far the lowest of any starter.
After starting 0-1 last year, Florida is looking to prove that while their roster looks eerily similar, this is a brand new team in 2026-27.
