Gators Hold Off Rival Tennessee to Claim SEC Tournament Title

For the first time in over a decade, the Florida Gators have captured the SEC Tournament titlea

Kyle Lander | Mar 16, 2025

The Gators are at the top of the SEC in Nashville / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Florida Gators avenged their midseason loss to the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday, winning 86-77 to take home the SEC Tournament. After falling short last season, they win their first SEC Championship win since 2014.

A huge reason they were able to pull this one out was because of their offensive rebounding and free-throw shooting. On top of out-rebounding the Volunteers 39-25 overall, 15 of those were on the offensive glass while their opponents had only five. As for the free throws, they were 25-for-28 as a team, which comes out to be 89.3%.

Unsurprisingly, Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. had a team-high 22 points. He also logged five rebounds, two assists and a steal. The Gators had five players score double-digit figures.

It took a team effort against the Volunteers and that’s what the Gators did. They now should have the one-seed locked up for the NCAA Tournament barring any surprises from the NCAA Committee.

Gators Play Clean Basketball in First Half, Resulting to Halftime Lead

While the Volunteers started the day hitting their first two 3-point attempts to take a 6-3 early, the Gators quickly surged back to take a 10-6 advantage four minutes into the game. The Gators carried this lead through the next six minutes as well.

Then, starting around the 10-minute mark, the Gators began seperating themselves. From the 10:34 mark to the 5:11 mark, the Gators slowly expanded their lead to 12 thanks to a difficult step-back 3-pointer from Richard.

However, Tennessee’s effort didn’t drop despite falling into this big hole as they climbed back into it nearing halftime. They scratched and clawed to cut the Gators' advantage in half with 20 seconds remaining in the first period.

Florida’s Denzel Aberdeen was able to dampen this momentum shift with a 3-pointer from the logo with less than a second left to put the score at 39-30 in favor of the Gators at halftime.

Richard was the head man in this first half, scoring a team-high 11 points. He was 3-for-5 overall with all three makes being on 3-point attempts. In addition to Richard, Clayton Jr. and Aberdeen had seven points each.

Another aspect of this first half that Gators head coach Todd Golden will love was his team winning the turnover battle. They had struggled recently with turnovers but only had two in the first compared to Tennessee’s four. And forcing these four turnovers resulted in seven points off of them.

Gators Late Run Secures Hardware for the Program

The second half began exactly the same way it did for the Gators in the first half, a 3-pointer from Clayton Jr. This bucket set his team’s lead at 10 points 30 seconds into the half.

From here, the Gators continuously kept the Volunteers at an arm's length. Anytime Tennessee would make a shot, so would Florida. Anytime they got a stop, so would Florida. This effort allowed the Gators to extend their lead to 13 with just under 14 min remaining in the game.

But just like the first half, the Volunteers had a run of their own to make it just a two-possession game. Through their relentless effort on defense, they chipped away at the Gators' lead and it paid off. Tennessee was able to chunk their deficit down to just five points and the main reason, offensively, was because of their guard Jordan Gainey. After going down 13 points, Gainey scored the team’s next eight points, which put the score at 60-55.

Although Florida had an answer of their own not too much after this. Leading the Volunteers 70-64, the Gators went on an 8-2 run to reestablish a double-digit lead over their opponents with 3:34 left in the game.

This run from the Gators would seal the deal. The team slowly started to take the air out of the ball over these final minutes and did not rush anything on offense.

By doing this and defending the way they did, there was too much time taken up on both ends. And when the final whistle was blown, they wound up on the winning end.

Selection Sunday Now Up

After taking down Missouri, Alabama and Tennessee on three consecutive days, Florida should finish as a one-seed for the NCAA Tournament.

However, all speculation for which one seed they’ll get on Sunday. The bracket release for the men’s tournament will start at 6 p.m. It will be televised on CBS.