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ANTONYA ENGLISHThe Gators' and sophomore's best game comes at the best time: vs. the rival 'Noles.
GAINESVILLE - Florida guard Anthony Roberson made it clear before Saturday's game against Florida State that he was taking it personally.
He had watched friends and fellow Florida athletes suffer losses in two sports to FSU this fall, so he felt the need to make sure the Seminoles finally left Gainesville in defeat.
He made good on that promise. The sophomore scored a career-high 28 and the No. 14 Gators played arguably their best game of the season, defeating Florida State 87-73 in front of 12,141 in the O'Connell Center.
It was the second loss of the season for the Seminoles (12-2).
"We got beat by a team that played better than we did today," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. "Even though we made a fight of it, I never felt we were in synch like we needed."
Florida (9-2) has won six in a row in the series.
"This was a team we wanted to beat real bad," said Roberson, who scored 20 in the first half, 18 from 3-point range. "No Florida team had beat Florida State this year, not in soccer or football, so we can say the last time Florida played Florida State, (we) beat them, so I feel good about that. It was just a (game) for me where the shots were falling."
Florida coach Billy Donovan was pleased with his team's play. With eight days of uninterrupted practice - no games or classes - Donovan had ample opportunity to practice and run drills with a team that has three players with significant experience.
"We made tremendous strides with the amount of practice time we've had," Donovan said. "We felt like we needed to get up and down the floor and we needed to be disruptive. We were constantly rotating and scrambling. I thought our guys play really, really hard, but very unselfishly. This was a very good win."
Florida led 39-33 at halftime, its biggest lead since opening the game 7-0. The Seminoles used an 8-2 run to pull within 48-46 on Tim Pickett's 3-point basket with 14:24 left in the game.
But along with Florida's pressure came FSU's drought.
Florida went on an 18-4 run to take a 66-50 lead with 6:49 left. At one point in the second half, FSU 7:05 without a field goal.
"Once they got that six-point lead (44-38), then we got it back down to two, that seven-minute stretch was the difference," Pickett said.
Hamilton said poor free-throw shooting (17-of-27) and turnovers (21) also hurt the Seminoles.
"In the first half we were always able to match their runs, but in the second half we weren't," Hamilton said. "We haven't played a team that pressed us this much and had this many quality shooters. ... We're vulnerable to the fullcourt press and they exploited it."
The Florida players said fatigue was a factor in the end.
"With 15 minutes left in the second half, Pickett and some of those guys turned to me at the free-throw line and said how are you guys still running because they had played so many minutes," said Florida forward David Lee, who scored 18 and had eight rebounds. "With our depth, they just couldn't understand how we were still running and pressing."
Lee's streak of consecutive shots made from the field ended at 19, six shy of the NCAA record.
Florida forward Adrian Moss scored eight in the second half and Bonell Colas added nine of his 11 in the final 20 minutes. Sophomore Matt Walsh added 11 points and had four assists and five rebounds. Pickett led all FSU scorers with 25 and had seven rebounds.
FSU is the first to shoot more than 50 percent from the field (52.2) vs. the Gators, but Donovan still was pleased.
"I don't think there's any question this is the way I envisioned our team playing," he said.