Florida begins title defense with 59-point rout of Prairie View, 2nd-biggest margin in NCAA tourney

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 16th-seeded Panthers (19-18).

After top overall seed Duke struggled in the first round against Siena and fellow No. 1 Michigan let Howard hang around for the entire first half, Florida had no trouble whatsoever.

“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.”

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, a 35 1/2-point underdog according to BetMGM Sportsbook, 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 before 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, a historically Black school located outside of Houston, made it to March Madness after going 5-27 a season earlier. The Panthers defeated Lehigh in the First Four and weren’t strangers to facing teams from major conferences after having lost on the road to Texas A&M, Missouri, LSU and Oklahoma State early this season.

Donate Horne scored 12 points for the Southwestern Athletic Conference champions.

“Tough game,” Prairie View A&M coach Byron Smith said, adding 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.”

Golden makes an early tweak

After Prairie View made five of its first seven 3-point attempts, Golden adjusted Florida's defense. The Panthers went 1 of 15 behind the arc from there, finishing 6 of 22.

“We didn't do a job in the first couple of minutes of guarding the 3-point line, and once we righted that we accomplished what we needed to,” Golden said.

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness