Florida Gators
Arkansas
UF's big second half nets 73-63 win over Arkansas
Saturday, February 10, 2001 | Men's Basketball
The Gators opened with an 8-2 run after trailing 35-29 at the half. With the score tied at 57, Matt Bonner made a free throw and followed with a three-point basket to give the Gators the lead for good, 61-57. Brent Wright helped the Gators put the game out of reach when he converted a three-point play to give the Gators a 69-63 lead. Wright finished with his second straight double-double: 14 points and 10 rebounds.
"Arkansas, in a lot of different areas outplayed us," said Gator coach Billy Donovan in his postgame radio interview. "I was disappointed in the way we played, and with our effort and our emotional effort. We were very, very fortunate to be down by 6 points at the half. In the second half, I thought we did a much better job of attacking, guys made some shots and made some plays."
Donovan wasn't pleased, however, to see his players get frustrated during the hard fought, physical contest. "We got frustrated with the officials, we got frustrated with Arkansas' quickness, slapping and tipping basketballs and not able to get into our offense."
The Gator coach also praised the crowd of over 12,000 fans for their role in the victory. "Our guys need to understand, just because we're playing at home doesn't mean we're going to win. I think you have to play that much harder to protect your home court and I think that our fans inspired our basketball team when maybe our emotional level was a little low."
The Gators are now 16-5 overall and 6-4 in the SEC. Arkansas dropped to 5- 5 in the league and 14-8 overall. Florida now hits the road for games at LSU Tuesday night February 13th and at Tennessee Sunday February 18th.
