Florida basketball will face Vanderbilt in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament on Saturday, March 14.
The Gators are into the SEC Tournament semifinals for a third straight season, just the third such streak in team history.
Vanderbilt (25-7) defeated Tennessee 75-68 in the quarterfinals, and the Gators (26-6) took down Kentucky 71-63. Duke Miles dropped 30 points in Vandy’s victory, while Alex Condon led UF with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
“Good win for us today,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “Coming into the conference tournament, we hadn’t played in about a week. I thought we were a little rusty. Played with good energy in the first half. It was kind of the same story each of the three times we played these guys this year. Got up big in the second half. We were up 17 with 13 to go, had an opportunity to extend to a point where they couldn’t get back in the ballgame. We got sloppy with the ball.
“I thought our execution and the way we played physically for the last 13 minutes was not good enough. That’s something we can address and get ready for our opponent in the semifinals.”
On the road against Vandy, Florida pulled out a 98-94 win.
Xaivian Lee hit a go-ahead 3-pointer in the game’s final seconds. Lee and Rueben Chinyelu each put up 20 points in the win, while Vandy’s Tyler Tanner posted 20 points.
Florida won the rebound battle 40-26 and knocked down eight 3-pointers in the matchup.
Florida 93, Vanderbilt 90: Vanderbilt was one of the few teams that posed a serious challenge to Florida during conference action. The Commodores will cause problems for the Gators. If Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee have strong performances then UF will come out on top.
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