GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Chalk up another cockeyed shooting performance by Florida from the 3-point line. The Gators, for the third time in as many games to open the 2025-26 season, bombed bricks from deep against Florida State and trailed in the second half because of it. 
 
The Gators hope this cold spell is only temporary, but they also know they have a front-court security blanket of size, length and depth to lean on. They needed every inch of their bigs and every one of the nearly five dozen rebounds gathered to get out of sold-out Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center with a 78-76 victory in their rivalry game Tuesday night. 
 
UF sophomore point guard Boogie Fland, who scored 14 of his season-best 18 points in the second half, hit a pair of free throws with 15.8 seconds to go and forward Alex Condon tossed in two more with 5.7 seconds remaining for a five-point advantage, thus rendering moot FSU point guard Robert McCray V’s 3-pointer with a half-second to go, giving the Gators (2-1) their fifth consecutive win in the series. 
 
Florida, an 18½-point favorite, made life miserable for itself by going just six of 31 from the 3-point line and turning the ball over 18 times, including a flurry of five during a late-second half stretch that allowed a nine-point advantage – which the Gators fought like mad to get after trailing for nearly all of the first 10 minutes of the second half – wither to just one with over a minute to play. 
 
In the end, the difference was in the rebounding column, where UF blasted FSU 58-36, including a 17-7 margin on the offensive end. Both small forward Thomas Haugh (20 points, 13 rebounds) and center Rueben Chinyelu (10 points, career-high 16 rebounds) posted double-doubles. Four other Gators had at least five boards. 
 
“Gosh, Florida’s got some big boys,” FSU’s first-year coach Luke Loucks said. “It’s one thing to see it on film, it’s another thing to see it in person.”
 
His counterpart, Todd Golden, sees his bigs every day, but really needed to see them at their active best against the feisty Seminoles and amid their latest struggles shooting the ball. The plus-22 margin in the rebounding category was a “buffer,” Golden said, they needed to survive.
 
“We have to be a team that punishes our opponents on the glass,” he said. 
 
Especially if they’re going to shoot as poorly from distance – as in 19.4%, with senior shooting guard Xaivian Lee going 1-for-10 — like they tossed against the Seminoles (2-1). Make that as poorly as they have through the season’s first three games in going a combined 19-for-90. That’s 21.1%. 
 
“Just stay the course,” Fland said. 
 
He should know. The transfer from Arkansas and former McDonald’s All American came into the game a combined 0-for-5 from the arc in his first two games as a Gator. He started 0-for-3 in his third game, but the lid came off at a good time. 

Both teams shot 37.5 percent in the first half, but FSU, playing their new wide-open, 3-point-emphasized, full-court-pressure system under Loucks, led 40-37 at the break because they hit five 3s (on 15 attempts) to UF’s two (on 14). The Seminoles were up five, 52-47, inside 15 minutes remaining and by four approaching 13 when Fland nailed his first 3 as a Gator (on his ninth attempt), making his team 4-for-22 for the game. 
 
“We stayed composed,” Haugh said. “We started to break their press.”
 
The Seminoles led 57-55 when Lee (7 rebounds, 6 assists) fed Chinyelu for a lob-slam in transition to kick in a run of 11 straight points that included Fland’s second 3, this one from the corner and with the generosity of a couple bounces before falling through the cylinder. 
 
“It means you’re living right, as they like to say,” Fland joked. “I’m just happy it went in.”
 
Florida seemingly was cruising along, up 66-57 inside eight minutes, but Florida State wasn’t done. McCray, who finished with a game-high 29 points, scored 15 over the final six-plus minutes to throw a heckuva scare at the home team. The FSU run was aided by a wave of five UF turnovers over four-plus minutes, including three of Condon’s six for the game, as the Seminoles trailed just 71-70 after two McCray free throws with 1:24 to go. 
 
Urban Klavzar’s corner 3-pointer gave the Gators some momentary breathing room – a 74-70 lead wth a minute remaining – but McCray drove to a layup and, after a Fland missed 3, got fouled and went to the line with a chance to tie the game with 17.8 seconds left. McCray hit the first, but missed the second, with Fland rebounding. He hit both free throws at the other end. 
 
Next, McCray was off on a 3, with Condon rebounding with 5.7 to go. He made both for a 78-73 lead. 
 
Again, it was McCray, this time draining a 3 with .4 showing. The Seminoles fouled Haugh on the inbound, but he missed both his free throws and a desperation 80-foot heave by Chauncy Wiggins – that would have won the game – was off to the right. 
 
“I’m just really happy, really pleased,” Golden said. “I think the expectation outside of our building, outside of the arena, [was] that this would be a game for us to control. But we knew coming in how difficult it was going to be. Luke has done a phenomenal job in a short period of time, getting that program playing a very unique style that’s really hard to prepare for, and playing with lot of confidence.”
 
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.