News / Sports
Florida Gators Get it Done, Beat Oregon to Advance to Final Four
Lee Humphrey scored 23 points, Taurean Green added 21 and Joakim Noah finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds as the number one seeded Florida Gators knocked of the number three seeded Oregon Ducks 85-77 to advance to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament.
Unlike their previous tournament games, the Gators weren’t forced to battle back from a deficit in the first half. While Florida seemed to have trouble holding on to the ball early they settled down and used seven straight points to turn a 22-18 deficit into a three point advantage in the first half. After Malik Hairston scored for the Ducks the lead was one but the Gators managed to hold the lead the rest of the half and went into the break with a 40-38 lead.
Aaron Brooks was able to tie the score at 45-45 for the Ducks early in the second half but Green answered with a three-pointer and followed that with a jumper and the Gators were back up by five. After that the Ducks were never able to get any closer than four. Florida went up by as many as nine but Oregon kept battling back and took advantage of poor foul-shooting by the Gators. With 33 seconds left in the game Brooks hit a pair of free-throws and Oregon was down 78-74 but Florida found their stroke from the line in the closing seconds and held on to advance.
Florida shot just 65 percent from the line while the Ducks hit 93 percent of their foul-shots but the Gators were stroking from deep as Humphrey and Green combined to hit 11-21 from beyond the three-point arc.
Brooks led Oregon with 27 points in the loss.
