College basketball
Gators climbing
Florida's recovery from the loss of Christian Drejer continues with a road win.
By Associated Press
Published February 29, 2004
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Florida notched another win on its road to recovery and restoration of its NCAA Tournament hopes.
The Gators overcame sloppiness - 20 turnovers - because Arkansas struggled from the 3-point line - 2-of-25 - for a 73-68 victory Saturday.
Florida won its third in a row after a 3-6 stretch, including losing four of five and falling out of the Top 25.
"I don't know if it's a roll or not," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "I think we have rallied and pulled together."
David Lee scored 18, Matt Walsh 17 as Florida withstood a late Arkansas run. The Razorbacks battled back from a 19-point deficit in the second and cut the lead to 69-64 with 1:19 remaining.
After that, Arkansas missed three shots on one possession before turning it over on a jump ball. Then it missed two more shots before Walsh sealed it with four free throws in the final minute, the last two with 19 seconds remaining for a 73-64 lead.
"We have learned from our previous losses that you can never let up in a game, so we stuck in there and played hard and came out on top," Walsh said.
The Gators haven't lost since forward Christian Drejer's sudden departure to play professionally in Spain.
Two of those wins have been away from Gainesville, guaranteeing Florida of finishing .500 overall in the SEC and on the road.
"The thing I'm most pleased about is we play a lot of freshmen and they've been able to win four on the road this year," Donovan said. "You go .500 on the road in this league, that's hard to do."
The Gators were helped by the Razorbacks, who missed their first 17 3-pointers.
"It's difficult when your shots aren't falling," Arkansas coach Stan Heath said. "When you're young, you get frustrated when your shots don't fall. We need to win an ugly game, when things aren't going your way."
Arkansas needs to win its final two, at home against Alabama on Wednesday and at Mississippi on Saturday to finish 14-13 and have any hope of earning an NIT berth.
Ronnie Brewer led Arkansas with 23 points, seven rebounds and six steals, but it wasn't enough to keep the Razorbacks from losing 10 conference games for the third consecutive year.
Arkansas hadn't played in a week, since knocking South Carolina out of the Top 25 with an 82-66 win. However, players said they didn't think the time off hurt.
"We were just off on our shooting and you can't blame that on the week off," Davis said. "It was a bad shooting night, but we played hard on defense. We scrambled, pressed and played physical."
Leading 69-60 with 1:38 to go, Florida turned over the ball three straight times against Arkansas' press.
The Razorbacks took advantage of the first two, cutting the lead to 69-64 with 1:20 remaining. Olu Famutimi and Brewer each scored after making steals, but the Razorbacks didn't score again until a pair of meaningless layups in the final 11 seconds.
The Razorbacks scored 28 after forcing 20 turnovers and that was the only thing that kept the game from being a blowout.
"Arkansas had such a low 3-point percentage that helped us out," Donovan said. "But our 20 turnovers kept them in the game, so they both offset each other."
[Last modified February 29, 2004, 01:15:11]
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