South Carolina's Mike Boynton knocks the ball out of the hands of Florida's Bonell Colas during Gators' win Wednesday night.
COLUMBIA, S.C. - David Lee can't stand missing shots. Over Florida's past few games, he hasn't had to worry about that.
Lee kept up his hot shooting and scored 21 to lead the 14th-ranked Gators to a 65-62 victory over South Carolina on Wednesday night in the Southeastern Conference opener for both.
Lee, who had 14 rebounds, was 8-of-12 from the field, making him 29-of-35 in the past four games for the Gators (10-2). He came up big on a night when Anthony Roberson was held to five points, nearly 12 fewer than his team-leading average, on 1-of-5 shooting.
Lee doesn't like to get too excited about his performance.
"I try and stay humble and just stay focused," he said. "You never know when a Maryland game is going to happen when I'm 1-of-12."
The way Lee's shooting, that's not likely.
Even when he expects to miss, the ball finds its way through the net. Lee's spinning heave about 4 feet from the basket with 4:50 left broke a tie at 57 and put the Gators ahead for good. Lee said he bumped a Gamecocks player on the way up and prepared to chase the miss.
"It was a little bit of a luck shot there," Lee said, smiling.
Renaldo Balkman's driving layup with 39 seconds left got the Gamecocks within 63-62.
But Roberson hit two free throws with 18 seconds to go and South Carolina missed two tries at tying.
Josh Gonner front-rimmed a fadeaway 3-pointer with eight seconds left and Michael Boynton also missed a 3 as Florida hung on for its fifth straight victory and sixth in a row over the Gamecocks.
Gonner led the Gamecocks with 18 points.
Christian Drejer had 16 points and 12 rebounds for Florida.
Despite Florida's fifth straight victory since losing consecutive games to Maryland and Louisville last month, coach Billy Donovan was not happy with his team's play.
"I just thought our guys were a step slow and a step late," he said.
It didn't help when Roberson picked up offensive fouls the first two times he touched the ball and sat for the final 16 minutes of the first half. The Gators shot 10-of-29 from the field and committed 12 turnovers in the half as they trailed 29-27.
"We talked about that all year long," Lee said. "We have plenty of good guys who can keep us in the game. And that's going to be very important coming down the stretch."
Roberson's return seemed to settle the Gators, who started the second half with a 20-8 run to go up 47-37 with 12:19 left. But in front of 15,042, third-most at its 15-month-old facility, South Carolina answered with a 16-5 run. When Gonner drove the left baseline for a layup with 7:35 to go, the Gamecocks led 53-52.
The score was tied at 57 when Lee picked up a missed shot by Drejer and threw up his "luck shot." The Gators didn't trail again.
