Florida Gators
Alabama
Florida Bounces Back With Win Over Alabama
Saturday, February 8, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Senior forward Matt Bonner scored a team high 21 points and freshman guard Anthony Roberson poured in 16, including four-of-six from three point range, while Alabama struggled to find its shooting as the top-ranked Gators defeated the Crimson Tide (No. 22/20), 75-56, Saturday afternoon in front of a crowd of 12,101 at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. With the win, the Gators reeled off their 16th consecutive home victory to improve to 19-3 overall and 8-1 in SEC play. Alabama, which suffered its seventh loss in the last eight meetings with UF, fell to 13-7 on the year and 3-6 in league play.
"I think any time you come off a game like we had against Kentucky from a coaching standpoint you are always concerned about the mental makeup of your team and how they will respond to something like that," said UF head coach Billy Donovan. "They seemed to move past what happened in Lexington. I thought this afternoon our guys just played really hard. The competed and played very unselfishly. I think it was just one of those games where Alabama did not shoot the ball particularly well. They had some struggles knocking down their shots. "
After Alabama controlled the tip, freshman Matt Walsh came up with a steal and pushed the ball up the court to senior Justin Hamilton whose slam put UF up 2-0, and the Gators never looked back. During the first eight minutes of the game, UF connected on eight of its first twelve shots from the floor, while Alabama missed 13 of its first 14 shots allowing Florida to open up a 16-3 lead.
The Crimson Tide hit five of its next ten shots during a span in which the Gators went 2-of-9 to trim the lead to 23-20 when Antoine Pettway nailed a three with 5:43 remaining before the break. The three would be just one of two Alabama made during the game as they finished just 2-of-18 from behind the three-point arc (.111), marking the lowest effort by a UF opponent this year.
During the last five minutes of the half, Florida responded with a trio of three-pointers of its own, two of which came from Roberson who led a 15-4 run to open the lead to 38-24 at the break.
Bonner, who had not scored more than 13 points in each of the last four games, nailed the first of three UF shots from behind the three-point arc during the early going of the second half to put the game out of reach. The lead was never in doubt with the Tide never coming closer than a dozen.
Bonner finished the game 8-of-14 from the field, while Roberson went 6-of-9 and matched Hamilton with five assists each as the Gators spread the ball well assisting on 19 of 26 field goals. David Lee chipped in 12 and was the only other Gator in double figures. He and Walsh led Florida in free throws with four each keeping UF perfect at the line where the team finished 14-of-14 marking just the second time in the Billy Donovan era the Gators have done so (South Carolina, Jan. 15, 1997, 17-of-17).
Alabama got 15 points from Erwin Dudley and 13 from freshman Kennedy Winston and finished the game shooting a .328 (19-of-58), which was a season-low for a Florida opponent.
Florida will be back in action on Wednesday, Feb. 12 as it hosts Ole Miss. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.
