GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida finally knocked off No. 1 at home, where the Gators are becoming impossible to beat.

UF did it playing top-ranked Tennessee’s own game.

“We were dominant from start to finish,” coach Todd Golden said. “We really didn’t have many lapses. There were not many possessions in that game where I did not think our guys were the tougher team.”

Golden’s squad put the defensive clamps on the Vols and never let up during a resounding 73-43 win Tuesday night, extending the Gators’ winning streak to 16 games in the O’Connell Center — where they are 8-0 and winning by an average of nearly 30 points.

“It’s gonna be hard to beat us here,” FAU transfer guard Alijah Martin said. “This is ours.”

Tennessee entered as the nation’s last unbeaten and allowing an SEC-leading average of just 55.9 points, fewer than any team but Houston nationally. But Florida (14-1, 1-1 SEC) staked a 12-0 lead, was ahead 34-15 at halftime and coasted to deliver the Vols their first defeat.

“We lost our poise,” Vols coach Rick Barnes said. “We got rushed and got disconnected on the offensive end. We’ll learn a lot from this.”

As a raucous sellout crowd of 11,011 looked on, the Vols managed just four first-half field goals while missing all 14 3-point attempts against the Gators, who allowed Kentucky to shoot 58% from the field — 48% from 3-point range — during a 106-100 loss Saturday.

The defensive effort allowed Florida to overcome a scoreless first half by point guard Walter Clayton Jr., who was coming off a 33-point outing and averaging a team-high 18.3.

The Gators had to earn everything early against Tennessee’s suffocating D, but scraped together a lead with hustle plays, aggressiveness in transition and three free throws by Denzel Aberdeen after he was fouled behind the arc.

The Vols didn’t score until Felix Okpara hit a pair of free throws with 13:19 left in the first half made it 12-2. Okpara’s alley-oop and two free throws by Jordan Gainey cut UF’s lead to six. But back-to-back 3s by Aberdeen and Will Richard pushed to advantage to 18-6.

Tennessee (14-1, 1-1) never got closer than 10 points and trailed by as many as 31, at 58-27 with 7:34 remaining.

SEC-leading scorer Chaz Lanier managed just two points during the first half but hit a 3 early in the second half after starting 1 of 10 from the field. He finished 3 of 16 for 10 points, and had three turnovers.

“We didn’t want to give him no breathing room,” Martin said.

After Lanier’s only 3, Clayton immediately answered with one of his own but still managed just seven points.

With their offensive leader off his game, plenty of Gators picked up the slack.

Martin had a team-high 18 points, Aberdeen, a junior, finished with a season-high 16 points, senior sophomore power forward Alex Condon had 12 points and 12 rebounds and sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu had a career-high 15 rebounds as UF held a 55-37 edge on the glass.

“He’s a beast, an absolute physical beast,” Golden said of the Washington State transfer. “It’s disheartening for opponents.”

The Gators, who were 2.5-point favorites, moved to 3-17 all time vs. the AP No. 1 team, picking up their first win since the 2007 national title game against Ohio State.

The 30-point win is most lopsided win against a No. 1 ranked team since since John Wooden’s UCLA squad beat Houston 101-69 in the 1968 Final Four behind Lew Alcindor.

‘This was a great game for us,” Golden said. “I’m incredibly proud. But the biggest thing now is this can’t be the highlight of our season.”

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