NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Walter Clayton Jr. scored 22 points and fourth-ranked Florida won its fifth Southeastern Conference Tournament title and first since 2014 Sunday, beating the No. 8 Tennessee Volunteers 86-77.
The Gators (30-4) lost in this game a year ago. This time, they made sure to finish their 12th appearance in this game all-time to add another title to the list that started with three straight between 2005-07.
Will Richard added 17 points for Florida. Alex Condon had 13, Thomas Haugh 11 and Alijah Martin 10.
Fourth-seeded Tennessee (27-7) goes home still looking for its first title in this event since 2022. The Vols have five SEC championships, but dropped to 1-3 under coach Rick Barnes with this the Vols’ fourth final in the past seven tournaments.
Jordan Gainey led the Vols with a career-high 24 points. Zakai Zeigler had 23 and Chaz Lanier added 11 before fouling out.
These teams split during the season with each winning routs defending their home courts. The Vols had enough fans that this felt like a home court. Yet they led only briefly, the last less than two minutes in at 6-5.
Florida took over from there. The Gators jumped out to a 34-22 lead and took a 39-30 edge into halftime thanks to a buzzer-beating deep 3 from Denzel Aberdeen. Tennessee never got closer than five in the second half.
NO. 16 MEMPHIS 84, UAB 72
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — PJ Haggerty scored 23 points, Dain Dainja had another double-double with 22 points and 12 rebounds and 16th-ranked Memphis won the American Athletic Conference tournament with a win over UAB.
Haggerty put the Tigers (29-5) ahead to stay with his tiebreaking bankshot with 16:10 left. The AAC player of the year later had a 17-second span when he drove the baseline for another shot off the glass, then had a steal that led to his fastbreak ending with a three-point play.
Memphis was already a lock to make the NCAA Tournament for the 29th time, and the third time in the past four seasons for seventh-year coach Penny Hardaway, who as a player for the Tigers was part of the 1992 and 1993 tournaments.
Yaxel Lendeborg had 19 points and 17 rebounds for the Blazers (22-12), last year’s AAC tournament champion who had to win the game that ended less than a half-hour before the Selection Show to get back to the NCAA Tournament. Efrem Johnson had 17 points.
Lendeborg’s 23rd double-double matched Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud for the most this season.
Dainja had his fifth double-double in eight games. Colby Rogers added 15 points for Memphis and Moussa Cisse had 14 rebounds.
NO. 22 MICHIGAN 59, NO. 18 WISCONSIN 53
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tre Donaldson and Vladislav Goldin each scored 11 points and No. 22 Michigan closed Saturday’s Big Ten Tournament championship game on an 11-2 run to beat No. 18 Wisconsin and claim its first tourney crown since 2018.
Donaldson also had eight assists one day after driving the length of the court for the winning layup with less than a second to go in the semifinal round. Michigan (25-9) won three games in three days to give coach Dusty May a title in his first season in Ann Arbor.
Goldin was named the tourney’s Most Outstanding Player.
John Blackwell scored 18 points and Max Klesmit added 12 to lead the Badgers, who have not a won the tourney crown since 2015. John Tonje added nine points and seven rebounds on an tough shooting night.
Both teams were coming off close, emotional victories and each looked sluggish most of the game. Wisconsin opened the second half on a 15-6 run to take a 38-27 lead, then watched the Wolverines use a 7-0 spurt to tie the score at 45 with 5:50 left. Goldin made two free throws with 46 seconds left to break a 53-all tie and Michigan led the reamainder.
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