No. 4 Florida cruises to third victory over Kentucky to open SEC Tournament title defense
Alex Condon scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and fourth-ranked Florida took its first step toward defending its Southeastern Conference Tournament title by beating Kentucky 71-63 in the quarterfinals
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Alex Condon scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and fourth-ranked Florida took the first step toward defending its Southeastern Conference Tournament title by beating Kentucky 71-63 Friday in the quarterfinals.
The Gators (26-6) never trailed and were tied only once while winning their 12th straight game. The regular-season SEC champions, who are seeking a sixth tournament title overall, will play either No. 22 Vanderbilt or No. 25 Tennessee in Saturday's semifinals.
Thomas Haugh added 13 points for Florida, and Xaivian Lee had 11.
Kentucky (21-13) now has one more loss all-time (32) than titles (31) in this tournament. The ninth-seeded Wildcats played their third game in as many days after opening the tournament Wednesday morning, a first for a program that last won this event in 2018.
Denzel Aberdeen led Kentucky with 17 points, reserve Mouhamed Dioubate scored 14 and Otega Oweh added 10.
During the Gators' streak, Kentucky was the only team to lose within single digits and did it twice, including in the regular-season finale at Rupp Arena.
Florida was up 16-6 quickly on a turnaround jumper by Condon with 14:13 left. Kentucky tied it up at 20. Boogie Fland then started a 13-point run with consecutive jumpers in a spurt that included a one-handed putback slam by Micah Handlogten. Fland ended the run with a 3-pointer, and Florida took a 37-28 lead at halftime.
Recommended for you
The Gators led by as much as 17 before missing 12 of 13 shots in the second.
Kentucky got within 66-61 on a 3-pointer by Aberdeen with 1:19 left. Lee hit a deep 3 from the top of the arc with 50.5 seconds remaining, then stole the ball from Aberdeen to preserve the win.
Up next
Kentucky returns home to rest and wait for its seeding and NCAA Tournament destination.
Florida takes another step toward defending its tournament championship.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.