Guard Erving Walker led the Florida Gators basketball team to a huge 75-62 win over SEC rival Tennessee with 19 points on 5-10 shooting. (AP Photo)

The Florida Gators (20-8, 9-4) team knew what it had to do heading into Tuesday night's primetime, nationally televised showdown against SEC rival Tennessee.

Despite a first half that saw Tennessee rain threes to jump out to the early lead, the Gators were able to close the half on a 10-2 run to tie things at 37 at the break.

From there, the Gators took over and dominated the Volunteers thoroughly. Florida got into the paint early and often in the second half, getting Tennessee big man Wayne Chism to the bench with about 16 minutes remaining after picking up his fourth foul.

Center Brian Williams also got into foul trouble early in the second half, opening up the paint for Florida. When Tennessee collapsed inside to try to take away the points on the boards, the Gators lit them up from outside.

For the first time in several games, the Gators shook off their outside shooting woes as point guard Erving Walker nailed three straight three-point attempts and forward Chandler Parsons hit a fourth, helping open up a 20-point lead with a 70-50 score.

Tennessee made a slight run but it was too little too late and the Gators finished with a 75-62 win.

“It definitely feels good,” said Parsons, who notched a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. “Especially for myself. I’ve lost to them five times in a row, so of course you kind of have a bad taste in your mouth every time you play them.”

Walker also led the Gators with 19 points on 5-10 shooting, his best night from the floor in quite some time.

“That was a big resume win for us,” said Walker. “We just moved another step closer to where we want to get to. But we’re not where we want to be yet. We need to make sure we maintain a level of humility and keep playing.”

With the win, the Gators moved ahead of Tennessee into third place in the SEC East standings.

The Gators probably need just one more win to secure an NCAA Tournament berth. Their remaining games are at Georgia, home against Vanderbilt and at Kentucky.

Tennessee will host Kentucky and Arkansas before traveling to Mississippi State to end the season.