One more to go! Gators rally past No. 1 overall seed Auburn in national semifinals
The Florida Gators’ magical march through the NCAA Tournament will continue.
After a thrilling come-from behind 79-73 win Saturday in the national semifinals over Auburn, the overall top seed in the event, UF now is just one victory away from claiming the program’s third national title. The Gators will face either Duke or Houston Monday night.
Florida, now 35-4, rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit, built an eight-point lead down the stretch, then hung on for dear life in the final seconds. The Tigers finished the season 32-6. Two of their losses were to the Gators.
Senior All-American guard Walter Clayton led the Gators with a game-high 34 points. He made five of Florida’s eight 3-pointers. Senior guard Alijah Martin, who once played in the Final Four at FAU, added 17 points while sophomore forward Thomas Haugh came off the bench to produce 12 points and seven boards.
“I’ve just got a bunch of guys around me that trust me,” Clayton said.
Added Florida coach Todd Golden on Clayton’s performance: “He’s done what he’s done all year for us. In big moments, he’s stepped up and made huge shots, settled our team down and made winning plays when we needed them.”
When the two teams faced each other on Feb. 8 at Auburn, Florida was dominant the final 25 minutes of the game and put together an impressive 90-81 win. On that day, the Gators seemingly did every thing right. But at the Final Four on Saturday in San Antonio, Texas, they truly had to dig deep for it after struggling in the opening half.
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The Florida Gators trailed at the half
Auburn led 46-38 at the break after a strong opening 20 minutes. The Tigers were dominant on the interior thanks largely to forward Johni Broome, outshot the Gators (51.5% to 44.4), had a plus-1 margin on the glass and committed three fewer turnovers (5-2). Broome, the SEC Player of the Year, had 12 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks at the break. As a whole, the Auburn starting lineup accounted for 37 of the team’s 46 points.
Meanwhile, Florida got 14 first-half points from Clayton and 10 more from Martin. But while those two shot well, the rest of team was only 4 of 12 from the field. Meanwhile, the Gators were hurt badly inside, where they were outscored 26-14.
But Florida began the second half with a 13-3 run and seemed to control the tempo the rest of the way. Broome was shut down in the final 20 minutes; he finished with 15 points.
And now the Florida Gators will play one final game in a remarkable season. The Gators own two national titles. They came during the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
