The Florida Gators are in Orlando this weekend for the AdvoCare Invitational. On Thanksgiving night, Florida faced Seton Hall in the first round of the tournament. The Gators came away with an 81-76 victory in a hard fought game with the Pirates.
Florida and Seton Hall kept it tight with a back and forth first half of play. The Gators went into the half trailing 40-39.
The Gators trailed by as many as six points early in the second half, but came surging back to take the lead once again and never lost it from there. The game looked to be shaping out much like the St. Bonaventure game. Seton Hall never went away even after Florida took several comfortable leads in the second half.
Devin Robinson did not do much for the Gators on the night, but did start a Florida run late in the second half with a mid-range jumper, followed by two free-throws from Chris Chiozza, a driving layup from Allen, and a beautiful three from the corner by Canyon Barry to make it 69-61 Florida.
The Pirates cut the lead to 73-71 with 1:54 to go in the game, but that is the closest they would get. The Gators just had to make it through some free throws to close things out, something that would have been a major issue last season, but Chiozza and Allen made four straight between them to give Florida some separation.
Allen led the Gators with a season-high 21 points on the night, with six boards. He was 7-of-14 shooting and 3-of-8 from beyond the arc. Barry had a season-high of his own, right behind Allen, with 20 points and six rebounds.
Coming Up Next:
With the win, Florida is set to take on 11th ranked Gonzaga in the semi-finals of the Advocare Invitational at 9:30 p.m. (ET) on Friday. The game will be aired on ESPN2.