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Florida Tops Auburn

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Nashville, Tenn. -- Junior Alex Tyus scored 24 points and Florida beat Auburn 78-69 Thursday night in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.

Florida (21-11), now 7-0 against the SEC West this season, has a chance to add another win Friday night against Mississippi State, the West's No. 1 seed, in the quarterfinals. Auburn (15-17) beat Florida in the quarterfinals last year. But the Tigers have now lost 12 of 13 games to Florida in what could be coach Jeff Lebo's final game with Auburn.

SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament Notes
Auburn (#5 Seed-West) vs. Florida (#4 Seed-East)
Game 3, Thursday, March 11, 2010, Tipoff: 6:30 pm CT

FLORIDA 78, AUBURN 69

With the win, Florida moves to 21-11 overall. The Gators advances to Round 2 of the tourney, and will face Mississippi State (#1, West) on Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT.
With the loss, Auburn falls to 15-17 overall.
Auburn still leads the all-time series against Florida, 87-70, though the Gators have won 12 of the last 13 meetings.
It marks Florida’s second straight win over Auburn this year after topping the Tigers 78-70 on Feb. 18 in Gainesville.

Game Notes:
•    Florida took a nine-point lead into the halftime break (40-31). The Gators led by as much as 14 in the first half after a dunk by Alex Tyus at the 9:38 mark. UF’s 14-point advantage was the largest lead of the game.
•    Florida scored 21 of their 78 points from behind the three-point line. The Gators entered the game shooting 30.7 percent for the season (11th in the SEC), but connected on 7-of-15 (46.7%) Thursday. In contrast, Auburn made only 4-of-25 three-point attempts, marking the fourth time this season the Tigers have been held below 20 percent from deep.
•    The Gators are the first team to hold Auburn’s Tay Waller scoreless this season. Against SEC play, Waller came in averaging a team-high 17.4 points per game. Waller’s previous season-low this year was three points against Kentucky.

Florida Notes:
With the win, Florida moves to 33-41 all-time in SEC tournament play, and 29-28 since the tourney was reinstated in 1979. The Gators move to 4-3 all-time vs. Auburn in SEC tourney play. Florida moves to 5-1 all-time in SEC tourney games played in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena (2001 & 2006). Florida won the 2006 SEC Tournament (3-0) in Nashville.

•    With his second three-pointer of the first half at the 15:10 mark, Chandler Parsons became the 45th member of Florida’s 1,000-point club. Parsons entered Thursday’s game with 994 career points and after putting up 21 points against the Tigers ranks 44th on Florida’s all-time scoring list with 1,015 career points.
•    Alex Tyus led Florida in scoring for the eighth time this year, connecting on 11-of-16 from the field to notch 24 points.
•    Tyus established a new season-high, besting a Jan. 27 performance of 23 points against Georgia. Tyus was one point shy of matching his career-high of 25 points (Nov. 30, 2008 vs. UMKC). The St. Louis native came into the game with 972 career points and is now only four points shy of becoming the 46th Gator to score 1,000 career points.
•    Florida won the battle of points off turnovers, 15-4. The Gators finished the game with only seven turnovers to tie their season low (Jan. 21, 2010 at Arkansas). UF only committed two turnovers of the second half, with their first miscue coming at the 9:11 mark.

Auburn Notes:
With the loss, Auburn falls to 27-47 all-time in SEC tournament play, and 23-30 since the tourney was reinstated in 1979. In SEC tourney play, the Tigers are now 3-4 vs. Florida. They are now 0-3 in SEC tourney games in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.

•    Auburn opened the second half with an 8-0 run to get within one at 40-39. The Tigers held the Gators scoreless for the first 4:11 of the period.
•    With 6:20 remaining in the second half, Frankie Sullivan broke his previous career high of 23 points (Dec. 3, 2008 at Xavier). Sullivan led the Tigers with 27 points marking the sixth time this season he has paced the squad in scoring.
•    Lucas Hargrove barely missed his sixth double-double of the season with 11 points and nine rebounds.