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Florida flattened again

Like in April's title game, the Gators hang tough only to see Michigan State pull away, this time 99-83.

©Associated Press, published December 7, 2000

[AP photo] Florida's Teddy Dupay, left, is fouled as he tries to drive past Charlie Bell in the first half.

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Same teams, same result.

No. 2 Michigan State beat No. 8 Florida 99-83 Wednesday in a rematch of the national championship game.

The Spartans (6-0) extended the nation's longest winning streak to 17 and earned their 34th consecutive victory at the Breslin Center, which trails only Utah's run of 54 wins in a row at home.

Both teams lost two star players to the NBA draft, but clearly returned plenty of talent to be considered elite teams this season.

"They're not nearly as good as they were in April," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "But they have the potential to be better than they were in April."

Michigan State's freshmen duo of Randolph and Taylor complemented their unquestioned talent with surprising poise off the bench. Randolph scored 27 points, on 10-of-13 shooting, and had seven rebounds. Taylor had 15 points and seven assists.

"Both of their freshmen were phenomenal," Donovan said.

Florida (3-1) led for the first five minutes, but Michigan State was in control for the rest of the game. The Gators trailed by double digits for almost the final eight minutes.

Brent Wright led the Gators with 18 points. Teddy Dupay returned from a one-game suspension to score 17 while being booed every time he touched the ball. In the title game, Dupay got tangled up with Mateen Cleaves, knocking the Spartans' star out of the game for several minutes with a sprained ankle.

Dupay said the raucous crowd didn't make a difference.

"They outplayed us on the court," said Dupay, who was leveled by an elbow in the first half.

Matt Bonner added 17 points for Florida. Udonis Haslem, who scored 27 points in the championship game, fouled out with 12:35 left. He scored 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting.

Haslem did not like the way the game was officiated.

"They allowed those guys to be a little more physical with us," Haslem said. "I feel like they called a lot of touch fouls. I can't help my team playing only 13 minutes."

After Michigan State had little trouble with Florida's press in the first half, the Gators chose not to press until they trailed by double digits with eight minutes to go.

"I think we wore them down like we did in the championship game," Michigan State's Charlie Bell said.

Michigan State made 55.4 percent of its shots and outrebounded Florida 37-26.

"It's hard to complain about how we played because I think we did a lot of things well," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.

UF got off to a good start. It led by as many as six and did not trail until Bell made a three-pointer five minutes in for a 13-12 lead.

The Gators' final lead was 16-15 at the 13:19 mark.

Michigan State led 48-40 at halftime.

Bonner scored the first five points of the second half to cut Florida's deficit to three, but they wouldn't get closer.

Michigan State then took command with 12-4 run, which gave them a 60-49 lead.

The game marked the 16th time national finalists have met the following season. The defending national champions are 11-5 in such games.

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