Florida Gators
Temple
M-Hoops opens with 72-64 win over the Temple Owls
Friday, November 9, 2001 | Men's Basketball
Justin Hamilton scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half and Udonis Haslem scored 14 as the fifth ranked Florida Gators defeated the Temple Owls 72-64 in the season opener. The Gators advanced to Friday night's championship game in the Coaches versus Cancer Classic at Madison Square Garden.
Florida's all-american guard Brett Nelson didn't get his first field goal until the 12:09 mark of the second half. He missed his first six shots, but hit a couple of three pointers in the second half to finish with 10 points. Freshman David Lee scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds in his Gator debut. Udonis Haslem had 14 points and 16 rebounds - the 15th double-double of his career. Matt Bonner chipped in with 11. Another Gator newcomer, James White, scored five points in his first game in a Gator uniform.
The Gators avenged a 21 point loss to the Owls in last year's NCAA tournament.
"Temple is a very difficult team to open up with in the first game," said Gator coach Billy Donovan. "Certainly, maybe there was some incentive because we did not play a great game, they really outplayed us, in the NCAA tournament".
Hamilton, who was playing in his first game since suffering a season-ending knee injury on January 17th, made three three-pointers as he established a career high with his team-best 17 points. But it was Hamilton's defense on Temple's Lynn Greer that drew Donovan's praise.
"What he did on Lynn Greer, defensively, was a spectacular job" Donovan said. "Greer's a great player and is going to get his points. He really did some great things on him." Greer led Temple with 15 points.
The Gators started slowly, falling behind Temple 18-11 in the first half. But behind Hamilton, the Gators closed the first half with a 28-15 run. Hamilton gave Florida the lead for good 29-28 on a three-pointer with about six minutes to play in the half. Florida was ahead 39-33 at the break. With 5:45 left in the second half, the Gators equaled their biggest lead of the game when Nelson made a shot to push the lead to 65- 52.
Florida will now play the winner of the Maryland-Arizona game for the championship Friday night at 9 p.m.
