SAN FRANCISCO — The message was simple inside the Florida locker room midway through the Gators’ NCAA West Region Sweet 16 contest against Maryland on Thursday.
The top-seeded Gators (33-4) were clinging to a two-point lead, had turned over the ball 13 times and were missing forward Alex Condon, who left early in the first half with an ankle injury.
“We try to have no more than 12 turnovers a game,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “We had to keep defending and stay on the glass, but we had to do a better job handling the ball.”
Consider it a job well done. Florida turned it over just four times in the second 20 minutes, two of them well after the Gators’ 87-71 victory over the fourth-seeded Terrapins (27-9) was put away.
Will Richard scored 15 points to pace six players in double figures for Florida.
Golden’s directive is one the Gators will have to repeat if they’re to advance to their first Final Four since 2014. They last reached the Elite Eight in 2017.
“We were a little loose with the ball in the first half,” Gators guard Denzel Aberdeen said. “Their guards were playing high, knocking the ball away. So we have to be better.”
Thomas Haugh scored 13 points and Aberdeen added 12 off the bench, pacing a unit that outscored Maryland’s reserves 29-3. That’s another strength for the Gators that showed up on the stat sheet, and that Golden said will be key on Saturday in the regional final against third-seeded Texas Tech. The Red Raiders edged 10th-seeded Arkansas 85-83 in overtime on Thursday.
“We feel our depth is one of our biggest strengths,” Golden said.
Florida’s Alijah Martin added 14 points, Walter Clayton Jr. had 13 and Rueben Chinyelu scored 10.
The Gators won despite another impressive effort by Maryland freshman Derik Queen. The Big Ten Freshman of the Year and potential NBA draft lottery pick scored 27 points on 8-for-17 shooting. He scored 56 in the three games Maryland played in the tournament.
The problem for Maryland was that help for Queen was rare. Guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie managed 17 points and canned three 3-pointers. Julian Reese and Rodney Rice added 12 points each.
“I think of what this group of guys was able to do, and I’m just proud of them,” Maryland coach Kevin Willard said of his team. “By far, this is the best team I’ve ever coached.”
In the end, Florida proved too forceful on the boards and too suffocating on defense. The Gators outrebounded the Terrapins 42-20, including a 15-7 margin on the offensive side.
“Even though we didn’t come out (of) this with a win, I’m coming out of this holding my chin up,” Reese said.
Florida held that advantage despite using Condon for 13 1/2 minutes because of the injury. His status for Saturday was unknown.
“They come from a physical conference in the SEC, and they’re really deep,” Reese said. “They’ve got a lot of big guys off the bench.”
Maryland made just 11 of 28 shots from the field (39.3 percent) in the second half and shot just 40.7 percent from the field for the contest. The Terrapins endured scoring droughts of nearly five minutes in the first half and almost 3 1/2 minutes in the second half.
“Florida is really good,” Willard said.
The victory propelled Golden to his first Elite Eight appearance as a head coach. It will come in the city where he coached the University of San Francisco for three seasons before being hired by the Gators in March 2022.
–Field Level Media
