The final home game of the 2025-26 regular-season schedule for Florida basketball resulted in a 108-74 victory over the Mississippi State Bulldogs for the Gators’ 10th straight win.
The team was missing its lead scorer, Thomas Haugh, but it did not matter as his frontcourt compadre Alex Condon filled the void with a monster performance. MSU might have the SEC’s second-best scorer in Josh Hubbard, but the rest of the roster simply did not have enough to keep up with Florida’s dominance at both ends of the court.
The final score set a program record for 100-point games against SEC competition in a season, with three. The intrigue does not end there — take a look below at the main takeaways from Florida’s Senior Night victory.
Gators start slow, then take charge
The starting lineup balance was a bit different than usual, with Micah Handlogten getting the start as Haugh took the night off, and the team looked a little out of sync. The Bulldogs came out tough in the first eight and a half minutes, taking an early 10-point lead that was pumped by a 6-0 run with McGee and Hubbard putting on a show.
Florida came thundering back quickly, scoring 18 straight points to flip the board on the Bulldogs and take an eight-point lead before they could even bite back. That stretch appeared to have demoralized MSU, as the Gators continued with an open throttle heading into halftime to secure a 14-point lead at the horn.
Over the first 20 minutes, the Gators shot 54% (19-for-35) overall and 38% (3-for-8) from beyond the arc, and outrebounded the visitors 23-15 (8-3 offensive), allowing zero second-chance points in the process. Points in the paint, however, were nearly even with UF leading 28-26; the home team was much more prolific in transition, scoring 13 against MSU’s four.
Funny enough, Florida held the lead in the first half for only 10 seconds more than Mississippi State.
Condon activates beast mode, Gators cruise
The Bulldogs came out of the locker room with a 2-3 zone that did little to slow the Gators’ attack — especially with Brown in place of Handlogten in the lineup. MSU was able to keep things respectable for the first several minutes of the half, but then the floodgates opened and the rout was on.
Florida put together separate scoring runs of seven, eight and nine-straight points over a 12-minute span ending around the 8-minute mark, after which the two teams played a bit of back-and-forth ball until the Gators mounted another 8-point run, pushing the lead over 30. Golden started digging deeper into his bench at the 4-minute mark, and by the end, Olivier Rioux made his appearance, much to the crowd’s delight.
The unquestionable story of the game is the performance of Alex Condon with his 26 points on 12-for-19 shooting (2-for-5 FTs), along with seven rebounds and three assists in 26 minutes played. Five other Gators also finished with double-digit points to lead the team to a 34-point victory.
Haugh’s presence clearly missed, but depth rules day
When you are missing the team’s leading scorer who averages 17.1 points over 33-plus minutes per game, it is inevitably going to show on the court — even if the final score seems unaffected. It certainly showed in the opening minutes that Haugh is a critical cog in the Gators’ gameplan, but also demonstrated the roster’s ability to absorb a lost player.
Condon shouldered a massive scoring load in his teammate’s absence, but the fact that guys further down the bench like CJ Ingram — who dropped his season high in points with nine, along with three assists and two boards — can provide meaningful minutes bodes well for this team when tournament time rolls around. If the Gators can crack the century mark and win by 30-plus without their top offensive threat, the sky is the limit.
The path back to the national title is a brutal one, but this team looks prepared for any attrition thrown its way.
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Takeaways as Florida basketball throttles Mississippi State at home
Reporting by Adam Dubbin, Gators Wire / Gators Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
