Florida Gators
Ole Miss
Gator men are eliminated by Ole Miss 74-69
Saturday, March 10, 2001 | Men's Basketball
Reed, who scored a team-high 15 points, made his basket after Brett Nelson had cut the Rebels' lead to 70-69 with a pair of free throws.
The Gators started off strong, moving out to a 23-13 lead midway through the first half. But Mississippi used a 27-11 run to take a 40-34 halftime lead. The Gators trailed by 7 with 7:45 to play, but tied it up about 4 minutes later, 65-65, on a Udonis Haslem basket.
The Gators, the top free throw shooting team in the SEC, missed 11 of 25 foul shots. They also committed 15 turnovers to Ole Miss' 9. Florida head coach Billy Donovan says his team didn't deserve to win the game.
"I thought, basically, in a nutshell, they just outplayed us from start to finish," said Donovan in the postgame interview room. "I thought our guys hung their heads with missed free throws and missed shots and showed some frustration a little bit."
Udonis Haslem led the Gators with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Nelson scored 13 points, but was just 4 of 12 shooting. Matt Bonner had 11 points while Teddy Dupay scored 10.
Donovan was asked if he thought the loss hurt the Gators' chances of getting a number-one seed in the NCAA tournament. "I don't know where we'll be seeded. It's an honor for us just to get invited to the tournament. Last year we were a five seed, we played for a National Championship."
The Gators finished the regular season with a 23-6 record. Ole Miss improved to 26-5 and will play for the SEC tournament championship Sunday afternoon in Nashville.
