Florida 71, Virginia 45: Bradley Beal and Casey Prather scored 14 points apiece, and the Gators overcame a poor shooting start to cruise past the Cavaliers in the NCAA tournament’s Round of 64 in Omaha, Neb.

Seventh-seeded Florida (24-10), the nation’s leader at 9.9 made 3-pointers per game, missed its first 13 shots from long range before Scottie Wilbekin’s 3-pointer near the end of the first half resulted in a 30-22 halftime edge.

The Gators, who will face either second-seeded Missouri or No. 15 seed Norfolk State on Sunday, finished just 4 of 23 from beyond the arc.

Tenth-seeded Virginia (22-10), one of the slowest-paced teams in the country, wasn’t any better, failing to connect from downtown until Sammy Zeglinski’s back-to-back bombs cut the lead to 36-30 early in the second half.

But that was as close as the Cavaliers got. Florida stretched its lead to 53-32 on Beal’s jumper with 9:10 to go.

Virginia normally uses a grinding defensive style to wear opponents down, but the Cavaliers’ offensive ineptitude was too much to overcome. They shot only 38.3 percent, including a 3-of-18 effort on 3-pointers.

Game Notebook: Virginia closed the season by dropping four of its final five games … Florida moved to 30-12 all-time in the NCAA tournament, including a 26-9 mark under coach Billy Donovan … The Cavaliers, making their first tournament appearance since 2007, fell to 4-8 when scoring less than 60 points.