Key takeaways from Florida's historic NCAA Tournament first-round win

The Florida Gators came, saw and conquered in their NCAA Tournament first-round matchup with the Prairie View A&M Panthers on Friday night, throttling the 16th-seeded opposition in a 114-55 obliteration that marks the largest margin of victory ever between a 1 and 16 seed and the second largest in the history of the Big Dance. March Madness is truly in full gear. Todd Golden's guys never trailed in this one, but did let the Panthers claw back from an early deficit to tie things up with just over six minutes elapsed.

However, Florida put its foot on the pedal and never looked back in its 59-point triumph. Boogie Fland led all scorers with 16 points while Rueben Chinyelu recorded yet another double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Also, Olivier Rioux made his first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance with just under two minutes remaining — with much less fanfare than he receives back inside the O'Connell Center — and managed to also score a bucket.

Top-seeded UF will face the 9th-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes , who snuck past the Clemson Tigers , in the next round on Sunday at a time to be determined. Below is a look at three key takeaways from Florida's bludgeoning of Prairie View in the round of 64. Prairie View shows early life, but was clearly outmatched Florida opened up by scoring the first seven points of the game before Prairie View was able to find the bucket, but the Panthers caught fire from the outside, notching their first 15 points all on 3-pointers and subsequently tying that game at the 13:41 mark.

The Gators quickly turned things around, embarking on a 45-6 run to end the half with a 60-21 lead — the most points scored in the first half all season. The beatdown did not stop there. Golden's gang allowed the Panthers to score more in the second half than in the first while falling short of their 60-point pace from the opening 20 minutes, but still managed to record a historic margin of victory.