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College basketball

Gators run away with one

NO. 4 UF 74, MISS. 55: Bonell Colas and Christian Drejer combine for 25 as Gators pull away in second half.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 13, 2003

GAINESVILLE -- One of Florida's greatest assets this season is that it is loaded with so many offensive weapons that it generally is tough for opponents to shut the Gators down.

Wednesday night, No. 4 Florida's offensive arsenal was alive again, but armed with new, unlikely weapons: two players who slowly are coming alive after being hampered by injuries.

Freshman guard Christian Drejer and junior forward Bonell Colas combined for 25 points to help lead the Gators to a 74-55 win over Mississippi in front of 11,658 at the O'Connell Center."My game plan is pretty simple," Colas said. "I just go out there and try to compete and play hard and let everything else happen. I just try to play hard."

Florida (20-3, 9-1 SEC) continued its dominance over SEC West teams, improving to 5-0 this season. The Gators have won 20 games in five consecutive seasons and have won 17 in a row at home, one shy of the school record.

"Our bench tonight played terrific," coach Billy Donovan said. "We got great minutes out of Bonell, I thought he had an outstanding game. And obviously I thought Christian had a breakout game for himself, and I think it was great for him to be able to play the way he did. Our young guys tonight did a terrific job."

Florida led 33-27 at halftime after a first half filled with momentum shifts. The game of runs turned out to be Mississippi's undoing.

The Rebels couldn't sustain it in the second half.

Mississippi opened with consecutive baskets to pulled within 33-31, then went 8:10 without scoring.

The Gators took advantage of Mississippi's scoring drought, going on a 20-0 run capped by a 3-pointer from Drejer with 8:44 left, to take a 53-31 lead.

Senior Justin Hamilton and freshman Anthony Roberson combined for 13 points during the run.

"For me, it's just important to be out there to compete and help the team," Drejer said. "You can say it's a breakout game, but for me it's just important every day to feel like I can compete and play well."

Florida outscored Mississippi 27-3 during a nearly 10-minute span in the final 16 minutes.

"The difference in the second half is I thought our zone was very, very effective," Donovan said.

The final score shows an easy win, but for 22 minutes it was anything but. Mississippi (12-9, 3-7) came in with a four-game losing streak, but refused to make things easy for Florida early on.

Mississippi dominated inside early, going often and easily to 6-foot-8 forward Derrick Allen for driving layups and tip-ins.

"The first five minutes they were a lot more aggressive than we were," Donovan said.

But the Gators rallied behind Colas.

Trailing by eight, Florida went on a 14-0 run to take a 22-16 lead. Colas scored seven during that span. Ole Miss ended the run with two free throws by David Sanders that started an 8-2 run to tie the score at 24 with five minutes left in the half. The Gators closed the half with a 9-3 run. Guard Brett Nelson played five minutes in the first half because of back spasms, then played 12 in the second but did not score.

Colas, who missed several games with a groin injury and suffered a broken nose in practice, scored 14 in 19 minutes and had three rebounds.

Since Drejer's return from a severe ankle infection that forced him to miss 15 games, Donovan said his biggest concern was Drejer's mental readiness.

Drejer took himself out of the lineup on Saturday because of soreness in his foot, but rebounded with a career-high 11 points and five assists.

"With the ball in his hands, the way he was making the game easy for everybody with the things he was doing, I think you could see some of the things I saw before he got hurt," Donovan said.

Roberson had a game-high 15 points and Matt Bonner and Hamilton scored 11 and 10 respectively. Sanders led Ole Miss scorers with 15.

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