College basketball

Florida learns lesson in time

Their shooting is off, but the Gators stay focused enough to top Auburn 69-57.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published January 15, 2006

GAINESVILLE - When he addressed his team at the end of Friday's practice, Billy Donovan gave players a stern warning about Saturday's opponent, Auburn.

"I told them this will be a 40-minute battle from start to finish and if you let frustration creep in at all, you guys will lose the game," Donovan said. "This is going to be an ugly game where we may not shoot well, we may not make shots, but we have got to defend, rebound and be disciplined."

He was exactly right.

It wasn't easy, but the Gators aren't being judged on style points. So Florida's struggles in the first 33 minutes Saturday night will make a great teaching video for Donovan, but the 69-57 win is what counts most to the players and the 11,953 at the O'Connell Center.

Oh, and the fact the second-ranked Gators (3-0 SEC) are 16-0, despite scoring the fewest points in a game this season.

"I think the one thing that should be talked about more is our guys' will and passion to win," Donovan said. "They've really stayed focused on winning. ... We really didn't get a lot of breaks. We had to grind it out and find a way to win."

Florida has 20 consecutive regular-season wins and 17 in a row at home - the third-longest home streak in school history.

For the second time in two games, junior reserve forward/center Chris Richard came up big for the Gators.

Leading 49-47 with 11:59 remaining, the Gators went on a 10-0 run led by Richard's seven points in a 1:31 span. It was the first time Florida had been able to consistently score inside the paint.

With the 59-47 lead and 8:20 left, the Gators finally took control.

"That was the plan for the whole game, but we just didn't do it," Richard said. "We tried, but they played good defense. Once we got it worked out, we kept going at it and going at it, so it finally worked."

Good thing, too, because the outside shots weren't falling for Florida. The Gators shot 39.6 percent, only the second time this season they've shot under 40 percent, and even worse from 3-point range (33.3). Guards Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey were a combined 3-for-17.

After the Gators took an 8-0 lead to open the game, Auburn went on a 9-0 run to take a one-point lead. Eventually there were two ties and six lead changes in the first half.

"We got off to a slow start with the zone and we had an off night shooting," said Green, who had a team-high 21 points, including 12-of-12 from the free-throw line.

Auburn (8-6, 0-3) scored just four field goals in the final 12:05 of the game, including a goal-tending by Al Horford. Florida outscored Auburn 20-3 at the free-throw line - the Gators were 20-of-27, Auburn 3-of-5.

"We just weren't able to score when we need to in the second half," Auburn coach Jeff Lebo said. "We have troubled scoring, that's our Achilles' heel. We really don't have a low-post game and we have trouble manufacturing points."

Horford, who is recovering from strep throat, was 6-of-7 from the field with 14 points and seven rebounds. The Gators committed just 10 turnovers, but forced Auburn into 23 turnovers that led to 20 UF points. Auburn's Frank Tolbert had 21 points and Josh Dollard added a career-high 12.

[Last modified January 15, 2006, 01:47:20]