UK 68, UF 65: No. 9 Wildcats overcome a 11-point second-half deficit late and stun the No. 21 Gators.
By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published February 4, 2004
GAINESVILLE - There's a reason Kentucky is one of the most dominant teams in the SEC.
It knows how to win - especially under difficult circumstances.
Trailing by 11 with 6:41 left in the game, Kentucky rallied for a 68-65 win in front of a stunned soldout Stephen C. O'Connell Center Tuesday night.
"It was a great comeback," Kentucky coach Tubby Smith said. "The team showed a lot of poise and a lot of character."
With the win, No. 9 Kentucky (15-3, 5-2 SEC) moved into a tie for first in the SEC East and dealt the Gators a crushing blow at home.
Florida (13-6, 4-4) did nearly everything it could to end a four-game losing streak to Kentucky.
Nearly wasn't good enough.
Kentucky went on 10-0 run in the final 90 seconds to earn the victory. Florida had an opportunity with a second left, but Matt Walsh stepped out of bounds.
Florida coach Billy Donovan readily admits that with his 2003-04 team he never knows what he's going to get from game to game.
Make that from one half to the next.
Florida trailed 33-29 at halftime, but it could have been much worse. The Gators shot 34.6 percent from the field and looked like a team that hadn't played together more than a few games.
But whatever Donovan said to the Gators at halftime, it improved the second-half Gators, at least early on.
In the first half, the Gators hit just nine shots from the field. They opened the second half hitting 5-of-7 in the first five minutes and were shooting 61 percent with less than 10 minutes left.
When junior forward David Lee hit his first field goal at 15:25 in the second half, the Gators took a 40-39 lead - their first of the game. They didn't trail again until UK's Cliff Hawkins stole an inbounds pass from Christian Drejer and laid it in with 1:13 remaining to take a 66-65 lead.
It was the beginning of the end for Florida.
Florida never led in the first half and trailed by 10 twice, but went on a 14-0 run early in the second half to take a 47-39 lead on a 3-point basket by Walsh with 12:05 left. Kentucky went 6:02 without scoring midway through the half.
The Gators played poorly for the majority of the first 20 minutes. Kentucky's defense kept the Gators offbalance from the start, with many of Florida's trips down the court producing a disjointed offense, poor passes and bad shots.
When the Gators did manage to get inside, the shots didn't fall. Florida shot 9-of-26 from the field (34.6 percent) and 4-of-11 from 3-point range - and trailed by 10 points twice in the first half.
After sophomore guard Anthony Roberson hit a 3-point basket at the 17:38 mark, the Gators went more than three minutes before senior center Bonell Colas hit 1 of 2 free throws with 14:20 remaining in the half.
From there, Florida went 8:17 without scoring a field goal, including 12 trips down the floor that resulted in either turnovers or plain missed shots.
Kentucky outscored Florida 10-2 in the paint and forced the Gators into nine first half turnovers.
Roberson and Walsh combined for 18 points and 16 of the Gators' 26 shots in the first half to keep Florida in the game.
