Gators rally to beat Mississippi State 81-80

Wednesday, January 10

Starkville, MS

8:00 PM

Florida Gators

Mississippi State

Gators rally to beat Mississippi State 81-80

Thursday, January 11, 2001 | Men's Basketball

The eighth ranked Florida Gators - playing without two injured starters - went on a 15-0 second half run and held on to defeat Mississippi State 81- 80 Wednesday night in Starkville. Brett Nelson made the decisive shot with five-tenths of a second left after the Bulldogs' Derrick Zimmerman tied the game up at 79-79 with less than six seconds to play.

The Gators trailed by as much as 12 points in the first half and seven at intermission. But a 15-0 run had the Gators up 55-46 with 12 minutes to play before the Bulldogs went on a 10-2 run to cut the lead to two. Mississippi State also came back from a 76-67 lead.

Florida shot a blistering 69% in the second half to fuel their comeback. They shot 61% for the game to Mississippi State's 47%. They did so without starters Brent Wright and Teddy Dupay, who are both sidelined with injuries. That made the comeback victory even sweeter for head coach Billy Donovan.

"It was one of the most unbelievable wins I've ever been apart of", said Donovan in his postgame radio interview. "For our guys to comeback like that, I could not be any prouder of our basketball team then what they displayed on the road, coming off an emotional loss to South Carolina, maybe questioning themselves a little bit, having two days to get ready and then find out we're losing Teddy." Dupay had an operation on a herniated disk in his lower back earlier in the day. He'll miss from four to six weeks.

Donovan said the Gators didn't change their gameplan even though they were without Dupay. "You're not going to be able to change a whole lot. We found out he wasn't going to play Monday night. We tried to keep these guys upbeat, knowing that they can do it and that we believe in them."

Nelson finished with a team-high 21 points. Udonis Haslem, who scored only four points against South Carolina, bounced back with 19 points and a career-high 16 rebounds. Justin Hamilton and LaDarius Halton scored 10 points apiece. Marckell Patterson, with 8 three-pointers, scored a career- high 28 points to lead the Bulldogs.

Florida is now 11-2 and 1-1 in the SEC. Mississippi State is 9-3 and also 1-1 in league play. The Gators' next game will be Wednesday January 17th against Georgia. It will be Florida's SEC home opener.