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The Florida men’s basketball team got to play their first game at Stephen C. O’Connell Center Sunday and opened their home schedule with an easy 86-40 win over the Stetson Hatters

Both teams had a pretty rough start to the game, combining to make just three of the opening 15 from the floor with the Gators missing six straight shots early.

However, from that point on, Florida reestablished themselves as the better team. The Gators went on a 23-7 run that included a 9-17 streak from the floor to move ahead by a score of 28-12 by the under-4 timeout. Keyontae Johnson showed out again with 11 points in the opening 13 minutes and nearly outscored Stetson by himself in the opening half with 13 points going into the locker room.

Omar Payne and Colin Castleton teamed down low to silence Stetson forward Mahamadou Diawara, who had been averaging 12 points and 10 rebounds per game entering Sunday. Diawara was 0-5 in the opening half with a single point, a pair of turnovers and only four rebounds, looking outmatched regardless of who was covering him between the Florida big men. Diawara finished with a single point and only five rebounds.

Payne flashed again for the second game in a row, grabbing five rebounds over multiple players and swatting three shots as well as an impressive dunk on an alley-oop. Castleton had 7 points on 3-4 shooting and a block of his own, and the two should be battling and competing for minutes and starts all season.

The Gators made up for their slow start from the court in the second half as, for the first time this season, sharpshooter Noah Locke got blisteringly hot from behind the three-point line. Locke made four threes in a 4:40 stretch halfway in the second half on his way to a 15-point day that included shooting 5-6 from long range. Tre Mann and Samson Ruzhentsev got in on the fun with a three each in the same time frame, and the Gators finished the game 9-23 from deep.

Tre Mann came back to Earth a little offensively, only shooting 3-8 from the court on his way to 10 points, but he looked just as comfortable managing the offense and his two assists included great passes, showing his impressive performances in Connecticut were no fluke. Johnson finished with 19 points after a quiet second half, still finishing as the team’s leading scorer again while shooting 7-13 from the court. Scottie Lewis also had 10 points, going a perfect 6-6 from the free-throw line.

The Gators coasted to a 46-point victory, moving them to 3-0 on the season and rolling with momentum heading into a rivalry matchup with rival Florida State Saturday.