Florida Gators
Florida State
Basketball Gators Beat Florida State 68-47
Saturday, November 17, 2001 | Men's Basketball
Udonis Haslem led four players in double figures with 18 points as the sixth ranked Florida Gators defeated the Florida State Seminoles 68-47 Friday night in Gainesville. The Gators overcame 20 turnovers and 12 missed free throws to win for the 23rd straight time against a non conference opponent.
It was a sloppily played game, with the two teams combining for 49 turnovers, 29 by Florida State. The Seminoles shot just 26 percent from the field while the Gators managed just 59 percent from the free throw line. At one point in the game, Florida State went nine minutes between field goals while the Gators suffered a five minute drought.
"I'll definitely take the win," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "But I really did not think we played a great game tonight by any stretch of the imagination. (We had) a lot of turnovers. We didn't execute."
The Gators got off to a hot start, making eight of their first nine shots to take a 22-11 lead midway through the first half. Junior guard Brett Nelson scored 11 of those 22 points before running into foul trouble. He finished with 16 points. Nelson's three-pointer early in the second half gave the Gators to their biggest lead of the night, 43-19.
Haslem scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half. When the Gators hit a lull offensively midway through the second half, Haslem made four of six free throws to help the Gators keep their double digit lead over the Seminoles.
Matt Bonner scored 13 points and hauled down a team-high eight rebounds. Justin Hamilton finished with 10 points, five rebounds and five assists.
"Florida State is certainly a good basketball team," Donovan said. "They certainly have a lot of good, athletic talent. If we can win by 21 points and still have a lot of room for improvement, that's very, very encouraging."
The Gators are now 2-1. The victory was Billy Donovan's 104th as Gator coach and tied him with Lon Kruger for third on the all-time win list behind Norm Sloan and Sam McAllister.
The Gators next play Monday, November 19 against the California All-Stars. It will be a 7 p.m. tip at the O'Connell Center.
