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Saturday, Jan. 29 3:00pm ET
Gators continue mastery of Vandy | |||||
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BOX SCORE
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida is virtually unstoppable at home. Mike Miller had 13 points and Justin Hamilton added 12 as Florida (No. 9 ESPN/USA Today, No. 10 AP) continued its home court dominance with an 89-63 win over Vanderbilt (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 20 AP).
Florida is 10-1 at the O'Connell Center this season. The Gators (15-4, 4-2 SEC) have also won eight of the last nine meetings in Gainesville between the two teams, including the last three by a combined 83 points. "I thought this was an important game for us," said Florida coach Billy Donovan, whose team had dropped two of its last three games. "From an effort standpoint, it was one of our better efforts. The energy level was through the roof." The 26-point victory was the largest ever for Florida against a ranked-opponent. The Gators shot 62.1 percent (36-for-58) from the field, the best percentage under Donovan. Dan Langhi had 26 points and James Strong added 17 for Vanderbilt (13-4, 4-3). The Commodores had beaten Florida 87-77 in Nashville on Jan. 5. "We didn't compete ... we weren't focused," Langhi said. Vanderbilt was outrebounded 43-21. Florida took a 10-point halftime lead, outscoring Vanderbilt 22-11 and taking a 57-36 advantage with 11:33 left. Hamilton's three-point play, including a fastbreak layup, completed the run. "Coach had been stressing defense the past few days," Hamilton said. "We came out and tried to create some offense through defense." Hamilton also had a nifty under-the-basket layup, which helped extend the Florida lead to 66-41 with seven minutes to go. Strong had five points in the opening 90 seconds of the second half as Vanderbilt got within 37-30. Florida quickly responded with an 11-1 run, keyed by two baskets by Major Parker, and took a 48-31 lead with 15 minutes remaining. Florida recorded assists on nine of its 13 first-half field goals in taking a 35-25 lead at intermission. After turning the ball over on its first four possessions, Florida went on 15-4 run and took a 15-8 lead with 13:12 left in the first half. Hamilton had a reverse layup and Kenyan Weaks hit a 3-pointer. The 25 points was the lowest first-half total for Vanderbilt this season.
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