As the final seconds of Florida’s 94-91 win over Kentucky ticked away, Walter Clayton Jr. gripped the ball tight and stared high into the Rupp Arena rafters, exhausted but triumphant.

Clayton Jr., who became a father earlier this season, has grown accustomed to the blend of joy and fatigue. It’s been a long road to becoming a Gator for the Lakeland, Florida, native, from Florida football recruit to Rick Pitino signee and star at Iona to coveted transfer portal target and ultimately, to starting guard at the school he grew up dreaming of playing.

On a cold Wednesday night in Lexington, Clayton Jr.’s talents and his dream came full circle.

It was Clayton Jr.’s shot with just 5 seconds left, a product of a splendid ball fake that sent Kentucky’s magnificent freshman guard Reed Sheppard helplessly flying by, that sent the game to overtime.

It was Clayton Jr.’s chase down block of an Antonio Reeves Jr. in transition that was the defensive play of the night too, a critical stop in a game where two elite offenses traded body blows but defense was at a premium.

Most of all, it was Clayton Jr.’s resilience after a first half that saw him score just 6 points on 2-6 shooting, with a turnover and a -8 box/plus minus, that was representative of how this Florida team met adversity on the road and grinned at it, playing with the poise of a team destined for bigger moments.

As chants of “It’s Great to be a Florida Gator” rained down from the few, loud and proud Florida fans scattered among the shell-shocked Kentucky faithful, you could almost sense another combination of feelings: joy and relief.

Florida fans, on the other hand, have waited a long time to feel joy, at least as it relates to their prized programs in football and men’s basketball. Florida’s young basketball coach and his team delivered Wednesday.

It’s far, far too soon to know if this win will portend the types of things another huge win for a young coach at Rupp almost 25 years to the day did for Billy Donovan, who beat a Kentucky team that eventually won the national championship behind the play of another sensational guard, Jason Williams.

Golden, of course, doesn’t have to be Billy Donovan.

Mike White, Donovan’s star-crossed successor who consistently made the NCAA Tournament at Florida and unceremoniously left for Georgia before being dismissed, knows what a fool’s errand trying to walk in Donovan’s footsteps can be.

What Golden needed to do is win.

After a tough first season in Gainesville that saw Florida lose All-SEC big man Colin Castleton in early February and limp to a NIT berth and just its second losing season this century, Golden went to work, inking one of the nation’s top transfer portal classes and bringing in one of the steals of the recruiting cycle in Australian big man Alex Condon, who ranks among the SEC leaders in blocked shots as a true freshman.

Florida was noticeably a better team, thanks to the Pitino-tough Clayton Jr., once a 3-star safety prospect on the gridiron, and a pair of proven graduate transfers in Tyrese Samuel, a multiyear starter in the Big East at Seton Hall, and UC Riverside’s Zyon Pullin, a savvy, physical passer and scorer who was one of the most coveted point guards in the portal.

For all the talent and the smart roster construction, though, a signature moment was missing.

The Gators arrived at Rupp Arena with 0 Quad 1 victories but a 14-0 record against Quads 2, 3 and 4. Florida had been close — losing by 4 to Baylor in the Preseason NIT Championship, losing by 3 to Virginia in Charlotte, losing by 2 to Kentucky in Gainesville in early January. But they hadn’t closed out a Quad 1 game, and even in a brutal SEC, time was beginning to run short.

Florida fans, beaten down and beleaguered by the length of the rebuild on the football field, were beginning to ponder the possibility of another ignominious distinction: a third consecutive season without a trip the NCAA Tournament. That hasn’t happened in Gainesville since 1990-1993, when Lon Kruger built a program saddled by NCAA probation back into a SEC contender.

Wednesday night’s win at Kentucky doesn’t assure Florida avoids that fate, but it says plenty about the fight of these Gators and the direction of the program under the 38-year-old Golden, the SEC’s youngest head coach.

Gone are the days of the plodding White offenses, so prone to scoreless droughts and late-game collapses, ills that plagued his NCAA Tournament quality teams. This Florida team ranks 13th nationally in KenPom Adjusted Offensive Efficiency, the highest mark since the halcyon days of the Donovan era.

Florida does it with magnificent guards, a throwback to a program staple from Sloan to Donovan and beyond.

Clayton Jr. led the Gators with 23 points Wednesday, but Florida’s other guards were good, too.

Zyon Pullin scored 20 points and added 7 rebounds and 7 assists, his second consecutive game with at least 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. The analytics site Bart Torvik ranks Pullin as the SEC’s 2nd-most efficient and impactful player this season, behind only Alabama’s Mark Sears and just ahead of All-American candidate Dalton Knecht at Tennessee. It’s plays like the pass he made to Clayton, or the driving left-handed layup and the foul he made in overtime to all but seal Kentucky’s fate, that make the eye test match the analytics.

Riley Kugel, a consensus preseason All-SEC selection much maligned by many in the fan base for a sophomore offensive slump, has carved out a role as a defensive stopper. At UK, with 9 minutes to play, Kugel was given the unenviable task of guarding the prolific Reeves. After Golden moved Kugel onto Kentucky’s star scorer, Reeves went 2-for-6 from the field, committed 2 turnovers, and was denied the ball consistently in overtime when the Wildcats were desperate for makes. If Kugel can continue to impact winning defensively, Florida has other pieces offensively that give the sophomore time to figure things out on that end.

For a Florida fan base starved for joy, Wednesday night was a sign that for at least one of their beloved programs, progress is being made.

Other challenges are ahead, beginning Saturday at Texas A&M, a preseason SEC favorite turned bubble team that plays with the type of brutish physicality that has bothered Florida in losses to the likes of Virginia and Ole Miss. In the new SEC, with unprecedented commitment to basketball resources and exploding revenues, there’s not much time to dwell in joy.

Still, wins at Rupp are rare, and meant to be savored.

They become even sweeter when they are the start of something special.

For Todd Golden and these talented Gators, that’s the hopeful reality.