TALLAHASSEE – Urban Meyer and his Florida Gators have Florida State’s number on the football field with four straight victories (out of five overall) against Bobby Bowden and his Seminoles. Maybe Meyer can tell his good friend and neighbor, Florida men’s basketball coach Billy Donovan, the secret to beating the Seminoles.
Since the second national championship season (2006-07) for Donovan’s Gators, Florida State has won the annual basketball showdown. This time, the Seminoles survived a missed 3-pointer by Dan Werner at the buzzer and rebounded from their first loss of the season to beat the visiting Gators, 57-55, Sunday evening at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
It’s the first time that FSU has beaten Florida three straight times since pulling off the trick from 1995-97. This time, coach Leonard Hamilton’s Seminoles (8-1) managed to overcome 31-percent shooting and a poor offensive night by Toney Douglas, who shot 1-of-9 from the floor and finished with a career-low 2 points.
Ryan Reid scored four of his team-high 13 points in the final 1:20 to lead Florida State. Jordan DeMercy added 12 points and 7-foot-1 Solomon Alabi had 11.
The Gators (6-2) got 16 points and six assists from sophomore guard Nick Calathes, who said Florida State’s size made things difficult for the 21st-ranked team.
“They’re a very big team, probably the biggest we’ll play as a team,” Calathes said.
Werner managed to finish with 10 points for Florida, which didn’t shoot much better than Florida State, finishing at 39 percent (20 of 51), including 4-of-18 from beyond the 3-point line.
“They made us earn every basketball we got,” Hamilton said.
Florida State improved a 26-25 halftime lead to 39-30 with 12:35 remaining before Florida ran off 10 straight points in a little more than two minutes. Calathes hit a 3-pointer and then hit a pair of free throws before Ray Shipman’s 3-point play – a layup and a free throw after he was fouled with 10:47 to go. Calathes then fed the ball to Alex Tyus for another layup and a 40-39 Florida lead with 10:22 to go in regulation.
The game went back and forth from there until Florida State regained the lead at 52-51 with Reid’s two free throws with 1:20 left to play. Reid then buried a jumper with 38 seconds left to give Florida State a 54-51 lead. The Seminoles’ final three points came from the free-throw line.
“Playing a good team on the road, we didn’t shoot the ball well,” Donovan said. “But we gave ourselves a chance.”
Florida State won the battle of the boards, 36-32, with Chris Singleton finishing with 10 to go along with 8 points. Alabi also had eight rebounds. Alex Tyus of Florida was held to 4 points but led the Gators with 8 rebounds.
The Gators return home to play Florida Gulf Coast University on Wednesday evening before a 10-day break for final exams.