Gators roll into NCAA Sweet 16
Florida moved closer to a second consecutive championship by defeating Purdue 74-67 Sunday to advance to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.
Juniors Al Horford and Corey Brewer each scored 17 points to lead the Midwest Region's top seed over Purdue, a physical team that had dreams of an upset until the last few minutes.
"I think we knew coming into the game that it was going to be very, very physical," said Florida coach Billy Donovan. "It probably took our guys a little bit of time to adjust to how the game was being officiated.
"It was obvious their mentality going in was to be as physical as possible. I thought our guys responded well. We kept our composure."
While Florida (31-5) advanced to a third-round showdown with Butler in the regional semi-finals, second-seeded Wisconsin was stunned by number seven Nevada Las Vegas 74-68 behind 22 points by senior guard Wendell White.
UNLV improved to 30-6, the school's first 30-win season since the 1990-91 team advanced to Final Four. Next up is number three seed Oregon, a 75-61 winner over Winthrop.
"We're going back home and getting prepared for the Sweet 16," said Runnin' Rebels senior forward Gaston Essengue. "We're going to show people we can be called one of the best teams in the country."
Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan lamented his team's failure to capitalize on a 16-2 second-half rally that saw the Badgers recover from a 12-point halftime deficit.
"We had our runs, they had their runs," he said. "The one that really hurt us was when we went up five and let the momentum get away from us. They hit some tough shots."
West Region top seed Kansas whipped number eight Kentucky 88-76 to set up a match-up against Southern Illinois in the round of 16. Sophomore forward Julian Wright scored 21 for the Jayhawks, who hit 10 of 16 from three-point range.
The 64-team tournament's top overall seed, Florida, has returned to form after a swoon when the Florida Gators lost three of their final five regular season games.
Florida, bidding to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since Duke in 1991-92, trailed at the half 31-29 as Purdue slowed the tempo to a crawl.
"We didn't shoot the ball well," said Donovan. "I thought Purdue took us out of some things offensively with their aggressiveness."
Donovan said he knew ninth-seeded Purdue (22-12) would not back down against his squad, the champions of the Southeastern Conference.
"You can take seedings at this time and throw them out," he said. "We're both from major conferences playing against each other. They've already played against the number one team in the country, Ohio State.
"They've played against great competition throughout their league (the Big Ten). So you knew coming in here that anything we were going to do do was not going to be a surprise."
Two foul shots by Brewer with six minutes left gave the Gators a 51-49 lead and they never looked back.
"I thought our guys did a great job of finding ways to make some plays," said Donovan. "We had to battle all the way."
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