Richard's 25 Points Surges No. 3 Florida to Win over No. 12 Texas A&M

Will Richard followed a 30-point effort against Georgia with 25 points against Texas A&M, leading Florida to its third win over a top-12 opponent.

The Florida Gators dominated Texas A&M, 89-70, with 42 combined points from Thomas Haugh and Will Richard. | Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated.

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Behind a 25-point effort from guard Will Richard, No. 3 Florida Gators on Saturday beat its third top-12 opponent of the season with an 89-70 win over the 12th-ranked Texas A&M Aggies.

"I think this game is a great example of just how difficult and how competitive our league is," UF head coach Todd Golden said. "Texas A&M, they're a very, very, very good team. Very good. They're in the midst of a losing streak right now. But, you know, just going toe to toe with those guys for 40 minutes and seeing how physical they are, how much talent they have, how competitive they are, I'm just incredibly proud of the way we play and our ability to kind of get away from them at the end."

Coming off a 30-point effort in Tuesday's loss to Georgia, Richard sparked Florida with six 3-pointers in the second half, while forward Thomas Haugh added 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Richard's total moved him past UF legends Joakim Noah and Al Horford on the program's all-time scoring list.

"Not bad, not bad," Golden said.

Defensively, the Gators held Texas A&M to a 39 percent mark from the field while stifling Aggies guard Wade Taylor IV to 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting.

"I thought our guys did a great job on Wade Taylor IV tonight," Golden said. "You know, I thought we did a good job keeping bodies on him, making him work for everything. He still made some tough shots, still was able to get to the line a little bit, but we did what we needed to do against him specifically to give ourselves a good chance to win."

Five of Florida's first eight buckets came from beyond the 3-point line with two each from Haugh and Alijah Martin, with the final one from Haugh giving the Gators its first lead of the game, 19-17 with 12:24 left in the first half.

TOMMY THREE 😤

📺SECN
Gators 19 | Aggies 17 pic.twitter.com/TwiC8CWhO2

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) March 2, 2025

However, the Gators went onto miss their next eight 3-point tries before a make from Martin gave Florida a 37-26 lead with four minutes left in the half. At that time, Florida held Texas A&M scoreless for over four minutes before forward Pharrel Payne hit a pair of free throws, bringing the Gators lead back to single digits.

The Gators picked up the second half right where they left the first half with successful shooting beyond the arc as Richard drilled back-to-back 3-points, which gave Florida a 17-point lead. However, Texas A&M would immediately go on an 8-0 run as the Gators missed six-straight field goal attempts.

A layup from Haugh put Florida up 55-45 with 13:48 left to end the Gators' dry spell, and Richard added his third and fourth 3-pointers shortly after later to put Florida up by nine points after Texas A&M chipped into the lead.

Alex Condon, who came off the bench in his second game back from injury, added back-to-back dunks near the six-minute mark, and Richard and Walter Clayton Jr. added a pair of 3-points to put Florida up by 14 points with under five minutes to go.

"For me, just being aggressive," Richard said. "Just taking open looks and trying to stay aggressive not only opens things up for myself, but for my team as well. Whatever it takes to win. I'm just trying to win."

The Gators ended the game on a 9-0 scoring run over the last three minutes, capped off by a dunk and a jumper from Haugh with under a minute left, as Florida forced four-straight missed shots to end things.

HAUGH 🤯

Gators 87 | Aggies 70
📺SECN pic.twitter.com/NgkUNsuooO

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) March 2, 2025

Next Up

The Gators (25-4, 12-4 SEC) on Wednesday hit the road for a top-10 matchup at No. 6 Alabama, its second ranked matchup in a row. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. with television coverage on ESPN2.

With Missouri losing on the road to Vanderbilt and Alabama's loss to Tennessee, the Gators need one more win to be in the driver's seat for the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament behind Auburn.

"So we have a lot on the line left. We got a lot we're still playing for. We're still playing for a (national) 1 seed. Wednesday will impact that a lot," Golden said. "We're still playing for the double bye. I heard Missouri lost tonight. They have six. So if we get one more win and then we get the double bye. So, let's go. One more win."