Florida Gators
Tennessee
Men's Basketball defeats Tennessee, 81-67
Tuesday, January 30, 2001 | Men's Basketball
Dupay, who was expected to miss up to six weeks after the back surgery, played 15 minutes and hit a three-pointer with eight minutes to play that broke a 53-53 tie. The Gators built an eight point lead, but Tennessee cut it to four before Matt Bonner hit a big three-pointer that put Florida ahead 70-63 with 2:30 to play. The Gators nine three-pointers in the game.
Head coach Billy Donovan praised Dupay's effort. "He was terrific," said Donovan in his postgame radio interview. "They (team doctors) told me before the game that he could probably play 10 minutes. Through the second half they said to me, coach, that's about 10 minutes. I said forget 10 minutes, he's playing too well, I'm leaving him out there. He did a great job."
So did Bonner, who finished with his sixth double-double of the year -- 21 points and 10 rebounds. Udonis Haslem scored the Gators first seven points of the game and wound up with 17 points and 8 rebounds before fouling out with 2:55 remaining in the game. Bonner collected six of Florida's first eight rebounds of the game in just over nine minutes of action Brett Nelson chipped in with 18 points and eight assists.
"I think in order to have a chance to compete and beat a team like Tennessee and play well, everybody's got to play well," said Donovan. "We still get to a point when we have droughts ,but 81 points, I've felt like we've been playing in the 50's and 60's, its good to see us around 80 right now."
Both teams came into this, the 99th meeting between the two teams, ranked in the AP Top 25 for the third consecutive game. In the first 96 games of the series, they never played a game against each other when they were ranked in the Top 25 at the same time.
The Gators have now won three straight to move to 14-4 overall and 4-3 in the SEC. The Gators and Volunteers are tied for third place in the East. Tennessee fell to 17-4 and 4-3 in league play. The Gators will travel to Athens, Ga. Saturday for a rematch with 25th ranked Georgia. Game time is 5:00 p.m. The Bulldogs defeated the Gators 75-72 in their first meeting January 17th.
