What Happened

NASHVILLE, Tenn.  – Senior point guard Walter Clayton Jr. scored 22 points and fourth-ranked Florida held off sixth-ranked Tennessee and its raucous partisan home crowd for an 86-77 victory in the 2025 Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game at Bridgestone Arena for the program’s first tourney title in 11 years. 

Clayton, who was UF’s scoring leader in all three tournament games and was named the event’s MVP, hit seven of 18 shots, including four 3-pointers to go with five rebounds. Senior guard Will Richard had 17 points, sophomore forward Alex Condon tallied 13 points and nine rebounds, while backup sophomore forward Thomas Haugh added 11 points and six rebounds (five on the offensive end) off the bench. Grad-guard Alijah Martin gave UF a fifth double-figure scorer with 10 points, four boards and a ridiculous, exclamation-point slam dunk in the game’s final seconds.

UF shot just 42.3 percent against the nation’s No. 3 defense, but made nine 3s and was both tremendous and clutch from the free-throw line — 19-for-22 in the second half (86.4%) and 25 of 28 for the game (89.3%) — to stave off the Volunteers, who cut a 12-point first-half lead to five on three occasions before the Gators used an 11-2 run to open a 14-point edge and eventually put the game away. 

The Gators won the battle of the boards, 39-25, including 15-5 on the offensive end. 

Florida led by nine, 39-30, at halftime and little by little took the margin out to double digits in the second half. The Gators were up by as many as 13 a couple times, but UT went on an 8-0 run, with all eight points from guard Jordan Gainey (game-high 24) to make it a five-point margin inside nine minutes to go. That’s where it was when Clayton hit a 3-pointer for an eight-point margin with eight minutes to go. Back came the Vols, again getting the lead down to five, but another Clayton 3-ball started a run of 11-2, with Haugh hitting another along the way, to push the Gators in front by 14 with just over four minutes to play.

The Vols got as close as eight with 1:55 to go, but the Gators spread the floor, beat the UT pressure and got an alley-oop slam dunk by Martin on a great feed from Haugh to go up 10 with less than a minute remaining.

What it Means

Remember, the Gators were picked to finish anywhere from sixth to ninth in the SEC by preseason prognosticators. Instead, they claimed their first basketball championship of any kind (regular season or tournament) since 2014. They also have 30 regular-season wins for only the second time heading into the NCAA Tournament, where they’re a slam-dunk to be a No. 1. 

In the Spotlight

This ’24-25 team, to a man (and especially Coach Todd Golden), now has a special place in UF sports history. 

Staggering Statistic

Remember when the Gators scored a season-low 44 points in the 20-point loss at Knoxville on Feb. 1? Forty-four. Seems like a different season ago.

Up Next

Florida (30-4) will return home this afternoon and gather for Sunday night’s NCAA Tournament selection show to see which regional will have them as its No. 1 seed. Tennessee (27-7) is a lock to be a No. 2 seed.  

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu