Florida Gators
South Carolina
Gators Take SEC Opener At South Carolina
Thursday, January 8, 2004 | Men's Basketball
David Lee can't stand missing shots. Over the University of Florida men's basketball team's past few games, he hasn't had to worry about that.
Lee kept up his stretch of hot shooting and scored 21 points to lead the 14th-ranked Gators to a 65-62 victory over South Carolina on Wednesday night in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.
Lee, who had 14 rebounds, was 8-of-12 from the field, making him 29-of-35 in the past four games for the Gators (10-2). He came up big on a night when Anthony Roberson was held to five points after getting into early foul trouble.
Lee doesn't like to get too excited about his performance.
"I try and stay humble and just stay focused," he said. "You never know when a Maryland game is going to happen when I'm 1-of-12."
The way Lee's shooting now, that's not likely.
Even when he expects to miss, the ball finds its way through the net. Lee's spinning heave about 4 feet from the basket with 4:50 left broke a tie at 57 and put the Gators ahead for good. Lee said he bumped a South Carolina player on the way up and prepared to chase down the miss.
"It was a little bit of a luck shot there," Lee said.
Renaldo Balkman's driving layup with 39 seconds left got the Gamecocks (13-2) within 63-62.
But Roberson hit two free throws with 18 seconds to go and South Carolina missed two tries at tying the game.
Josh Gonner front-rimmed a fade-away 3-pointer with 8 seconds left and Michael Boynton also missed a 3 and Florida hung on for its fifth straight victory overall and sixth in a row over the Gamecocks.
Gonner led the Gamecocks with 18 points.
Christian Drejer had 16 points and 12 rebounds for Florida for his first career double-double involving points and rebounds.
Florida returns to action on Saturday when Tennessee (9-1 overall, 1-0 SEC) comes to the O'Connell Center for a 1 p.m. tip-off.
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