Florida Gators
Vanderbilt
UF men end losing streak at Vandy 72-62
Thursday, March 1, 2001 | Men's Basketball
The Gators enjoyed a 35-24 halftime advantage, but twice lost double digit leads to the Commodores. Nelson came up big with a 3-pointer when the Gators lead dwindled to 39-38 in the second half. He scored two straight baskets to put the Gators up 64-to-57 after Vandy had cut the lead to just three points.
"Great, great win with everything that was at stake, having a chance to play for at least a share of the SEC championship", said Gator coach Billy Donovan during his postgame radio interview. "When you start the year off 1 and 3, who thought that was possible?"
Matt Bonner scored 19 points for the Gators and Major Parker chipped in with 11, but SEC Player of the Week Udonis Haslem was held to just eight points. Still, Donovan said that Parker and Haslem played important roles in the victory.
"A guy like Brett Nelson is going to get alot of credit for scoring 24 points, but I really thought that our experienced guys - Udonis and Major - although they were not huge factors scoring, their emotional level and maturity, their character, helped get us over some humps in key points in the game."
Florida snapped a five-game losing streak at Vandy and won for the first time in Nashville in five tries since Billy Donovan became head coach. It was also the Gators' sixth straight SEC road win - a school record.
Vanderbilt - now 15-13 and 4-11 in the SEC - was led in scoring by Chuck Moore's 15 points. The Commodores have now lost six consecutive games.
The Gators will complete the regular season schedule Sunday afternoon against the Kentucky Wildcats at the O'Connell Center. A win would earn Florida a share of the SEC title. Tip off is slated for 12:00 noon.
