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No. 15 Florida lost a tight game against No. 4 Duke, 67-66, on Tuesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Gators were the better team for all but eight minutes of the game, but a 19-5 run from the Blue Devils to close the second half proved to be the difference. Once again, poor shooting doomed the Orange and Blue. Florida shot just 37.3% from the field and 25% from 3-point range.
Thomas Haugh did all he could to win, with 24 points, six rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal. It wasn’t enough. Cameron Boozer, who looked every bit the best player in the country, matched Haugh and then some. Boozer finished with 29 points, six rebounds, two assists and a steal.
A strong second half made things close. Boogie Fland and Alex Condon got going, offensive rebounds led to second-chance opportunities for Florida and strong defense forced more misses from Duke. The Gators took a two-point lead with 32 seconds left, but Duke returned the favor on a broken play. Urban Klavzar hadn’t left Isaiah Evans for most of the second half, but the last-minute scramble led to an open look.
Still, Florida proved that it’s still worthy of a top 10 ranking and that it can hang with the best teams in the country. It’s a work in progress, even if 5-3 looks ugly in the standings.
Florida couldn’t buy a bucket in the first half, unless Thomas Haugh was shooting. Haugh played all 20 minutes before the break and scored or assisted on 19 of Florida’s 24 points. Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee went a combined 1-of-11 from the field, and the only make was a lucky roll off the back of the rim. In fact, if you take away Haugh’s shooting, the team went 4-of-26 from the field in the first half. Ugly.
Haugh can only do it by himself for so long. Eventually, Duke figured out that he was the only threat and all of Florida’s plays were designed to get Haugh driving to his right. Considering the poor shooting, it’s a miracle that Florida kept the game knotted at 19 through the first 12 minutes. The next eight minutes were all Duke. The Blue Devils went on a 19-5 run, leading by 12 at the break.
Several little things buried Florida. Besides the forced 3-pointers, Condon was called on a lane violation to nullify a missed free throw from Cameron Boozer, and a blatant no-call on Duke goaltending was the difference on the scoreboard.
Coaches and players who point to referee errors are often labeled whiners, but sometimes it’s warranted. The ball hit the backboard and was then blocked. A year ago, a timeout gets called and the play is reviewed. The exact butterfly effect isn’t worth going into, but in a one-point loss, that moment looms large.
Of course, a better end to the first half from Florida makes all of this a non-issue.
Fland was Florida’s leading scorer in the second half. Part of that is Duke adjusting at halftime to slow down Haugh, but he also seemed to find an offensive rhythm that hasn’t been present all season. He finished the day just under 50% shooting and had three steals. Four turnovers ot one assist isn’t great, but he had just one and one in the second half.
The change came once Fland stopped forcing 3-pointers. He came around screens quickly and found plenty of buckets inside the arc. For Florida to be successful, Fland must play that brand of basketball.
It’s an encouraging sign to see Fland figure it out, but it came way too late. Again, this could have been a multi-possession victory for Florida had the first half gone even a bit better.
All the confidence Xaivian Lee built up in the second half against Providence might be gone. A 1-for-10 night with just one assist is not what starting point guards in the SEC do. Lee said he “was in a dark place” before that breakout game. He mustn’t return to the shadow realm.
The saying goes: play with emotion, not emotion. Lee can’t lose his “joy” every time the shots don’t fall. He was nearly a non-factor in this game, and there’s a reason Golden played Klavzar 15 minutes to Lee’s 10 in the second half. A bench role still feels right for Lee, at least until he gets his head on straight.
No shade. Adjusting to this pace is hard. But it’s what he came here to do.
Gator Nation is going to leave this one with a bad taste in their mouths, and rightfully so. But so-called moral victories will turn into real victories if this team continues to get better, as it has through the first month of the season.
Losing in November and December doesn’t matter if you don’t lose in March. Forget about TCU for a moment. Arizona and Duke are potential Final Four teams with elite freshman big men. The first thing Boozer said after the game was how good Florida’s frontcourt is.
It’s the backcourt that needs work, and they are improving. Back-to-back breakout games from transfers show what the Gators are capable of. If Fland plays like that for the whole game, or Lee doesn’t fall back into a slump, it’s a Florida win.
Todd Golden’s job is to get these guys firing on all cylinders before the NCAA Tournament. Seeding doesn’t matter. UConn is Florida’s last chance on the non-conference schedule to add a meaningful win. That complete team performance has to come next Tuesday.
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Entertainment
MIAMI (AP) — Two South Florida police officers claim Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s recent action thriller “The Rip” used too many real-life details in its fictionalized narrative, causing harm to the officers’ personal and professional reputations, according to a defamation lawsuit.
Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, sergeants in the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, filed the lawsuit in Miami federal court earlier this month against Artists Equity, a film production company owned by Affleck and Damon. Court filings don’t say how much the officers are suing for, but the civil complaint says they’re seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney fees, as well as a public retraction and correction.
“The Rip” features Affleck and Damon as South Florida police officers who find millions of dollars inside a house. Parts of the movie were inspired by a real 2016 case, where police found over $21 million linked to a suspected marijuana trafficker in a Miami Lakes home.
An attorney for Artists Equity declined to comment when reached Monday by The Associated Press. But in a March 19 response to the plaintiffs’ demand letter, Leita Walker, an attorney for Artists Equity, wrote that the film does not purport to tell the true story of that incident or portray real people, which had been stated by a disclaimer in the film’s credits.
Although Smith and Santana aren’t named in the film, the lawsuit claims that Santana was serving as the lead detective assigned to the real case, and Smith was the sergeant who supervised the investigative team. The film’s inclusion of real details about the case gives the impression that the characters are based on the plaintiffs, the suit said.
And this, the lawsuit claims, has given friends, family members and colleagues the impression that the plaintiffs committed the criminal acts that appear in the film, which include (SPOILER ALERT) conspiring to steal seized drug money, murdering a supervising officer, communicating with cartel members, committing arson in a residential neighborhood, endangering the lives of civilians, repeatedly violating core law-enforcement protocols and executing a federal agent rather than making an arrest.
Walker wrote in March that the plaintiffs haven’t even identified which particular character is supposed to be based on Smith or Santana, so even if “The Rip” was actually about a real-life narcotics team, there’s no way to connect any of the characters to the plaintiffs.
“The Rip,” directed by Joe Carnahan, debuted in January on Netflix. It’s currently rated 78% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
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Brevard County couple gets married in NICU after birth of premature twins
A Florida couple, told they may not be able to have children, welcomed premature twins and had an impromptu NICU wedding.
Provided by AdventHealth for Children
Ben and Danielle Cassidy were told they likely wouldn’t be able to have children.
But this year they will celebrate Mother’s Day just months after having an impromptu wedding in the AdventHealth for Children hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit shortly after Danielle gave birth to twins prematurely — a week before the Palm Bay couple was scheduled to get married.
Both babies, Joshua and Rhett, are doing well despite arriving nine weeks ahead of schedule on Jan. 19, 2026, just one day after their scheduled baby shower. With a proper wedding out of the question with two premature babies in the NICU, a nurse took action.
Issabel Kenkel, the nurse behind the ceremony, said she was already in wedding planning mode for her own upcoming nuptials when she found out the Cassidy family’s ceremony would be interrupted.
“I couldn’t just let them do something small. They needed decorations and something fun, so I spoke to the music therapist and the chaplain,” Kenkel said. In short order, a wedding was being planned for their hospital room and the couple was saying their vows in the company of their safely delivered newborns.
“When we found out we could request staff members to be on our team, that’s when we requested Issabel and having that kind of consistency from someone who has such a big heart and is so kind,” Danielle said.
The hospital ceremony was all the more special because of the Cassidy family’s own health struggles.
“I have five autoimmune diseases and didn’t really think I would have kids. It’s been a rough journey. When Ben and I met, we were floored at how much a miracle it was to have kids,” Danielle said.
Ben, who battled and beat cancer, said he was worried that his prior treatment would result in negative health outcomes for his future children. Having twins for him was an unexpected blessing.
“When we found out we were pregnant, we found it so shocking. We said, wouldn’t it be great if it was twins? It filled out our hopes and dreams list,” Ben said. “They’ve been miracles for sure.”
The Cassidy couple said there was so much fear and uncertainty when their twins were born nine weeks early. Being able to get married right away just made them feel all the better about the future.
“It was nice getting married because we didn’t have to wait any longer to make it official. It made it that much harder for her to get rid of me,” Ben said.
“The unknown made it scary,” Danielle added. “We had no idea how long we would be in the hospital. Our wedding was going to be at the beach with immediate family and parents. Having NICU babies, we realized we’d never be able to get to the beach. It was really special having the people who care for our babies be part of the ceremony.”
The couple hadn’t even planned to have a band at their wedding ceremony and now the hospital’s music therapist was performing live for them and the chaplain was conducting the ceremony, something nurse Kenkel said was just part of her job.
“The babies are going to have the best outcomes if the families are taken care of and going home happy,” she said. “Being in the NICU is already so stressful. This is just one more thing I could do to take care of my patients.”
Tyler Vazquez is the Growth and Development Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Vazquez at 321-480-0854 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com. X: @tyler_vazquez.
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