NASHVILLE — Tyler Tanner scored 20 points as 22nd-ranked, fourth-seeded Vanderbilt beat fourth-ranked, top-seeded Florida 91-74 on Saturday at Bridgestone Arena, ending the reigning national champion’s bid to win a second straight Southeastern Conference men’s basketball tournament title and possibly hurting the Gators’ bid for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division I tournament.
The 68-team bracket for March Madness will be revealed Sunday evening on CBS, not long after the Commodores (26-7) and 17th-ranked, third-seeded Arkansas (25-8) meet in the SEC title matchup on ESPN. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. Eastern.
The Commodores — who will enter with a slight edge in rest after playing Saturday’s first semifinal and cruising without needing overtime, as the Razorbacks did to get past No. 15 seed Ole Miss in the second semifinal — is going for its first SEC tournament title since 2012. With the championship showdown taking place just a couple miles away from the Vanderbilt campus and the Commodores’ own Memorial Gymnasium, second-year head coach Mark Byington is hoping to maximize the hometown advantage or his team.
“I hope there is a lot of black and gold in Bridgestone tomorrow,” he said at the end of his postgame news conference. “Buy out the tickets, get in there. Buy them now before they figure out the result of this next game. If you can get the message out there, Vandy fans, let’s pack it up.”
Four other Vanderbilt players joined Tanner by scoring in double figures Saturday, with Jalen Washington adding 17 points, Duke Miles 15, Devin McGlockton 12 and AK Okereke 11. Six players for the Commodores made at least one 3-pointer, and everyone who played scored at least a bucket.
“So many guys stepped up,” Byington said. “That’s what you need to be able to beat a good team. Proud of the guys. Not really much celebrating. It’s on the Sunday, and that’s what we started this tournament for, is to play for a trophy on Sunday, and that’s what we have a chance to do tomorrow.”
The Commodores are unbeaten in March, having won four games in a row since a 1-3 stretch to close out February. They started the season 16-0 and won their first three games of league play before dropping three in a row in mid-January: 80-64 at Texas, 98-94 against Florida and 93-68 at Arkansas.
With the loss to the Gators avenged, the Commodores get the same opportunity against the Razorbacks, who have also won four straight since a blowout loss at Florida that clinched the SEC regular-season title for the Gators.
“We’re going to play a team that’s on a winning streak, a team that earned their right to get there, just like we did,” Byington said. “We want to play at a high level tomorrow. When a trophy is on the line, you’re going to see guys flying everywhere.”
The Gators (26-7), who won this year’s SEC regular-season title with a contest to spare, had won 12 straight games, including their tourney opener Friday afternoon, a 71-63 victory against ninth-seeded Kentucky.
Thomas Haugh led the Gators on Saturday with 19 points, while Boogie Fland added 15, Alex Condon scored 13 and Rueben Chinyelu had 12.
Florida had been dominant during its streak, winning by an average of 21.7 points to end the regular season. On Saturday, the Gators never led by more than two early on.
The nation’s top rebounding team dominated the glass again, with Florida finishing with a 38-23 edge, but the Gators struggled to find the basket, missing 12 of 13 shots in the first half.
Miles hit a 3-pointer to put Vanderbilt ahead to stay, and he finished off a spurt of 11 straight points with a layup. Vanderbilt led 47-34 at halftime.
The Gators never got closer than 13 in the second half. Vanderbilt pushed its lead to as much as 15 points at 76-51 with 8:11 to go on seven straight points, capped by a pair of free throws by Miles for a technical foul called on Florida coach Todd Golden.
Florida started the season 5-4 against a tough nonconference schedule before heating up by winning nine of 10, with the only loss in that stretch by two points at Missouri to open league competition. The Gators then won five in a row, and the 12-game streak that ended Saturday started after a surprising 76-67 home loss to Auburn.
Golden was asked about his thoughts on the Gators’ NCAA bracket position after their exit in Nashville.
“We had our early season tough start where we played really good, competitive opponents and (in) road or semi-away venues where we fell a little bit short,” he said. “We haven’t lost in 54 days or something leading up to this game, playing some of the best basketball in America. I do believe we’ve done enough to be the fourth 1 seed. But we’ll find out tomorrow night.”