Mike White and the University of Florida Gators notched its first NCAA tournament win since 2014 with an impressive 80-65 win over East Tennessee University.
Devin Robinson had two monster dunks and took a charge to give the Gators all the momentum in under a two-minute span. But after the timeout, the Gators returned to bad habits and went 0/8 from three point range until Kasey Hill sunk a last second three to put the Gators up 33-30 as time expired on the shot clock.
To end the half, ETSU, shot 14/29 from the floor and 4/11 from beyond the arc. It was TJ Cramer who led ETSU in score with 10 points.
For the Gators, it was Devin Robinson who led the team in scoring with 10 points going 5/8 from the floor. The Gators as a team shot 49.2 percent from the field but a rough 1/10 from three. The Gators lead 33-32 at the half.
It was all Gators in the second half as the team went on a 10-1 run midway through the second half to go up 57-43 and East Tennessee State was never able to recover. ETSU’s leading scorer was TJ Cramer who was 7/13 with 19 points. ETSU finished 40.3% shooting going 25/62 from the floor.
For the Gators in the second half, Devin Robinson led the team in scoring going 10/17 from the floor with 24 points. The Gators shot 48.1% going 26/54 from the floor. Chris Chiozza off the bench was big for the Gators with 14 points.
The Gators survive and advance to Saturday’s round against 5th ranked Virginia in the round of 32. It was a motivating win for Mike White and company coming off of a two-game losing skid, but the Gators look to put together a run when it means the most.