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Florida center Rueben Chinyelu (9) drives to the basket against Prairie View A&M forward Corey Dunning (4) and guard Dontae Horne (2) in the second half Friday night in Tampa. Chinyelu, who tallied a double double, is "just really hard to wear (Chinyelu) down," his coach says. ©Dirk Shadd
Let’s just say there’s a huge difference between a team that struggled to earn a trip to the First Four this week and one that prevailed in the Final Four a year ago. It’s a gap that can’t be closed between Florida defending a national college basketball title, and a team as defenseless as Prairie View A&M.
That was on full display Friday night at Benchmark International Arena, where the only thing left to determine was where the 114-55 beating the No. 1 Gators put on the 16th-seeded Panthers (19-18) ranked in the record book.
The 59-point margin was the second largest in NCAA Tournament history and the most in 63 years, since Loyola-Chicago beat Tennessee Tech by 69 points in 1963.
The Gators (27-2) got a double double from center Rueben Chinyelu, who poured in 14 points and had 13 rebounds in only 20 minutes of play.
The victory advanced the Gators to Sunday’s second round against No. 9 Iowa.
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“Rueben is, as you know, just a fantastic player,” Gators coach Todd Golden said. “A relentless worker and he’s improved so much since he’s gotten here to where he is now. It’s just really hard to wear him down. He does a great job wearing his opponents down. The first half, once we started getting stops, it felt like he was getting every defensive rebound and getting good outlets in transition.”
Prairie View A&M entered as 35.5-point underdogs and for bettors who gave away all those points, it was still a pretty promising night.
Florida held Prairie View to 2-of-16 shooting from inside the 3-point circle to start the game.
Cory Wells kept the Panthers in it for the first seven minutes, hitting two of the team’s seven 3-pointers six minutes into the game and tying it at 15-15. It was just enough to convince Golden’s team this might take effort. Then the swarm came.
“We didn’t do a good job of being attached and to their credit, they haven’t been a team that shot a lot of 3s,” Golden said. ”They’re more a mid-range and get to the rim type of team."
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But the Gators didn’t just take control. They went on an 18-0 run, their second longest of the season, turning Friday’s game into a highlight reel. If it wasn’t a slashing layup, Gators forward Alex Condon was dunking on their heads.
By halftime, the Gators led by 39.
“For us, we had to get back to who we are,” said Gators guard Boogie Fland, who scored 16 points.
Prairie View beat Lehigh in the First Four on Wednesday. Including their SWAC tournament, it was their sixth game since March 10.
Meanwhile, the Gators will have to find a way to slow Hawkeyes guard Bennett Stirtz, who is averaging 20 points per game and 4.5 assists this season.
Three Iowa players finished in double figures: Stirtz (16). Alvaro Folgueiras (14), Kael Combs (15)
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No. 8 Clemson (24-11) was playing without starting forward Carter Welling after he tore his ACL in the ACC Tournament. The 6-10 star led the team in rebounding and blocks.
“It’s unfortunate that their big guy ended up getting injured,” Iowa coach Ben McCollum said. “Obviously I thought he would have helped them. I thought they had a great game plan. They’re super physical, defensively.”
Iowa (22-12) has size, limits opponents to one shot and had balanced scoring against the Tigers. The Hawkeyes outrebounded Clemson 40-27.
The Tigers allowed Iowa to run out to a 22-10 lead in the first half. Clemson cut it to four points with just over a minute left before Kael Combs drove to the basket and scored with his left hand with 56 seconds remaining.
But it always felt like Iowa was in control of the game thanks to Stirtz handling the pressure and running the show.
“Yeah, that’s kind of been us this whole year,” Stirtz said. “We know we’re not the most athletic team or talented team out there but I think we’re the most together team and we love hanging out with each other. So there’s that.
“We love fighting together, as Coach Mac says.”
Can the Gators bring the bite again versus the Hawkeyes?
“It will definitely be a battle of tempo, a battle of pace,” Golden said. ”They play really good basketball and it’s going to be a big challenge for us."
NCAA second-round games in Tampa
at Benchmark International Arena
SOUTH REGION
• No. 9 Iowa vs.No. 1 Florida, 7:10 Sunday TV: TBS
MIDWEST REGION
• No. 5 Texas Tech vs. No. 4 Alabama, 9:45 Sunday TV: TBS
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