Florida

Photos From the Florida Gators’ Final Four Win Over Auburn

Published

3 weeks ago

April 6, 2025

Photos From the Florida Gators’ Final Four Win Over Auburn

SAN ANTONIO– For the fourth time in program history, the Florida Gators will play for a national championship after a 79-73 win over Auburn on Saturday in the Final Four.

Sparked by a 34-point outing from Walter Clayton Jr. and a strong defensive effort in the second half, Florida defeated the Tigers for the second time this season and will now play Houston on Monday in the national championship game.

Tip-off between the Gators and the Cougars is at 8:50 p.m. ET with television coverage on CBS.

All photos via Gators Illustrated’s Kyle Lander.

Saturday, April 5, 2025: Florida 79, Auburn 73

The Florida Gators’ win over Auburn in the Final Four clinched the program’s first appearance in the national title game since 2007 and fourth overall in program history. “I’m incredibly proud of these guys forgetting this win. We’re alive, man. We’re playing for this national championship on Monday night,” head coach Todd Golden said. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

The Florida Gators advanced to the national championship after a 34-point performance from Walter Clayton Jr. “He’s poised, calm and collected, confident in himself. We have that confidence in him. We see him practice, see his work ethic. We’re glad everybody else is getting to see him do it in a game,” Will Richard said of Clayton Jr. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

HC Todd Golden

Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden is just the second coach in program history to lead the team to the national championship game alongside Billy Donovan. “I was thinking how amazing it was that he’s here, a guy that is the face of Florida basketball, had such an amazing career in Gainesville, and obviously after. What he was able to do. He raised the bar pretty high at Florida. There’s some pretty high expectations now because of what he was able to do in his time there,” Golden said. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden, after winning his first NCAA Tournament game in his head coaching career, has led the program to its first national championship appearance in nearly 20 years. “It’s pretty incredible, man, you know? We worked pretty hard to get here. In three years, been fortunate to build a great staff that is aligned, that works really hard for each other,” he said/ / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

G Walter Clayton Jr.

Florida Gators guard Walter Clayton Jr. set a new program-high for points in a Final Four with a game-high 34 points in the win over Auburn. ” He’s special,” Will Richard said. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

G Alijah Martin

Florida Gators guard Alijah Martin had two highlight plays with dunks in transition in the team’s win over Auburn in the Final Four. “We’ve been waiting on him all year,” guard Walter Clayton Jr. joked. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

Florida Gators guard Alijah Martin finished with 17 points in his second Final Four appearance. He became the first player in NCAA history to start in the Final Four. “From the moment he got to campus in the summer, we knew that his experience and his mentality and the way he approached workouts and practice would really help this group,” head coach Todd Golden said. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

Florida Gators guard Alijah Martin may have had a strong 17 points, but his defensive effort across the season has stood out, and it was no different in the second half of Saturday’s win over Auburn in the Final Four. “Yeah, we know what we need to do. We just had to trust each other, play harder, get the job done,” Martin said. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

G Will Richard

Florida Gators guard Will Richard hit five free throws and recorded six rebounds in the team’s win over Auburn in the Final Four. “Walt, Will and Alijah, senior leaders, guys that have been through the fire a little bit before. Great players with really, really a high level of confidence. They just kind of breathe it into the rest of the team,” head coach Todd Golden said. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

Auburn HC Bruce Pearl

Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl has now lost both matchups this season against his former assistant, Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden, after Saturday’s Final Four. “Credit Auburn. Obviously an incredible team, one of the best college basketball teams in the past couple decades. You all know how much I love Bruce and Steven and their program,” Golden said. / Bruce Pearl

F Thomas Haugh

Florida Gators forward Thomas Haugh has turned from a largely unknown recruit to one of the nation’s top players in his sophomore season. He recorded 12 points and two blocks, helping Florida rebound after a poor defensive effort in the first half. “That’s not the game of basketball, that’s not the style of basketball we played at the beginning, out-physical us. That gave us extra motivation. Coach Hartman got on us a lot at halftime, too. That helped a lot going into that second half,” he said. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

G Cooper Josefsberg

Florida Gators walk-on Cooper Josefsberg celebrates with the Rowdy Reptiles after the team’s win over Auburn in the Final Four. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

Strength and Conditioning Coordinator Victor Lopez

Florida Gators’ strength and conditioning coordinator Victor Lopez celebrates as the team defeats Auburn in the Final Four. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

The Rowdy Reptiles

Florida Gators fans celebrate as the team punches its ticket to the national championship. / Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

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Florida

Florida is poised to ban fluoride from public water systems – WTOP News

Published

9 hours ago

April 29, 2025

Press Room

Florida is poised to ban fluoride from public water systems – WTOP News

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida is poised to ban fluoride in public drinking water, over the concerns of dentists and…

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida is poised to ban fluoride in public drinking water, over the concerns of dentists and public health advocates who say the mineral is a safe, effective way to protect people of all ages from developing cavities.

Florida lawmakers gave final approval to the bill Tuesday. The measure now goes to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose administration has advocated against the fluoridation of community water systems, arguing high levels could pose a risk to children’s intellectual development.

Fluoride strengthens teeth by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water is considered among the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

“As dentists, we see the direct consequences fluoride removal has on our patients and it’s a real tragedy when policymakers’ decisions hurt vulnerable kids and adults in the long term,” Brett Kessler, president of the American Dental Association, said in a statement earlier this month. “Blindly calling for a ban on fluoridated water hurts people, costs money, and will ultimately harm our economy.”

While Florida’s bill doesn’t specifically reference fluoride, it will require the mineral and some other additives be removed from water sources across the state, said bill sponsor Republican state Rep. Kaylee Tuck.

“Anything that relates to water quality, removing contaminants, things like that, we’re not touching that,” Tuck said. “It’s anything that has to do with health. So fluoride, vitamins, whatever else it is.”

Utah became the first state to pass a ban last month, approving legislation that bars cities and communities from deciding whether to add the mineral to their water systems.

Fluoride has come under increased scrutiny under the influence of U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is setting the gears of government in motion to stop fluoridating water.

Some local officials in Florida have already voted to remove the mineral from their community water systems, ahead of state lawmakers’ push to ban fluoride.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Tuesday she is “deeply disappointed” by the passage of the bill, adding that it disregards “the overwhelming consensus of dentists, doctors and medical experts and will end a practice that has been in place for decades to protect our health.”

Levine Cava said that ending fluoridation, which is a safe and cost-effective way to prevent tooth decay, will have “long-lasting health consequences, especially for our most vulnerable families.”

The mayor said the decision should be left to local communities.

About one-third of community water systems, serving more than 60% of the U.S. population, fluoridated their water, according to a 2022 analysis by the CDC.

___ Associated Press writer Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida contributed to this report. Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Copyright
© 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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Panthers rally late in 3rd to defeat Lightning in Game 4 of Eastern 1st Round | NHL.com

Published

1 day ago

April 29, 2025

Press Room

Panthers rally late in 3rd to defeat Lightning in Game 4 of Eastern 1st Round | NHL.com

The Panthers trailed 2-1 before scoring twice to take a 3-2 lead with 3:36 remaining in the game.

Florida leads the best-of-7 series 3-1. Game 5 will be in Tampa on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, SCRIPPS, ESPN2, TVAS2, SN360).

“We finished well, and it’s nice to give our fans that win,” said Jones, who gave Florida the late lead. “We’re up 3-1 and understand the job is not finished. Both teams played hard tonight, and there were a lot of ups and downs. They scored two back to back, and we stuck with it pretty well and got the win at the end of the day.’’

Anton Lundell had a goal and an assist, and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for the Panthers, the No. 3 seed from the Atlantic Division. Sergei Bobrovsky made 18 saves.

“We haven’t had a lot of these this year,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “They have been grinders. It has been tough. We had key guys out of the lineup … so, we don’t have the history of the comeback and that’s a little tougher. It was really important mentally to come back.’’

Mitchell Chaffee and Erik Cernak each scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves for the Lightning, the No. 2 seed from the Atlantic.

Tampa Bay was trying to match the Panthers by winning each of its first two road playoff games in this series.

“It was tough losing the first two at home, so, we have massive challenges ahead of us,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper, whose team beat the Panthers 5-1 in Game 3 on Saturday afternoon. “For 115 minutes, we passed every test possible. We just had a tough 11 seconds there at the end of the game. It’s unfortunate. We played well enough to win both games, and came up a little short.’’

Ekblad tied the score 2-2 at 16:13 by getting to a Sam Reinhart rebound in the slot and beating Vasilevskiy over his glove.

Florida then took a 3-2 lead at 16:24 when Jones’ point shot went off Ryan McDonagh’s skate and under Vasilevskiy’s right arm before bouncing over the goal line.

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Florida

1 dead, multiple injured after boat hits ferry in Florida

Published

2 days ago

April 28, 2025

Press Room

1 dead, multiple injured after boat hits ferry in Florida

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