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Gators' Defense Keys Win

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By KARL HYPPOLITE

Tribune correspondent

Published: November 21, 2008

GAINESVILLE - It was nearly a historic night at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center on Thursday.

After hitting 14 threes in their win over Bradley last Sunday, the Gators hit just 1-for-16 from behind the 3-point line in a 64-50 win against Southern Utah.

"It certainly was not a pretty game," Coach Billy Donovan said. "It's amazing how quickly shooting can leave a team to go from making 14 threes."

In fact, if not for a Dan Werner three with 22.1 seconds remaining it would have been the first time since 1992 - and 546 games - that the Gators would have played a game without hitting a 3-pointer.

"I think we got a lot of open looks and sometimes they're going to fall and some nights they're not going to fall," guard Nick Calathes said. "But we got the stops on the defensive end."

Florida leaned on its defense to pull out what was a tougher-than-expected victory. The Gators' full-court press frustrated the Thunderbirds offense all night, which led to 21 Southern Utah turnovers. The Gators were opportunistic throughout the night and scored 23 points off turnovers.

Though it's early in the season, this may be a sign of progress for what was an immature team in 2007.

"I think last year if we had a shooting game like that, we wouldn't have played any defense," Donovan said. "We didn't play great defense, but we played pretty good defense."

S. UTAH (1-1) - Baker 10-19 0-1 23, Quinney 0-4 0-0 0, Clifford 2-7 1-2 5, Thompson 3-5 0-0 6, Marek 1-4 0-0 3, Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Allen 0-0 0-0 0, Josserand 1-5 0-0 3, Jones 1-1 0-0 2, Nielson 3-4 2-2 8. Totals 21-49 3-5 50.

FLORIDA (3-0) - Werner 3-9 2-4 9, Parsons 1-3 5-6 7, Tyus 4-5 0-2 8, Hodge 0-4 1-1 1, Calathes 6-13 6-8 18, Shipman 2-3 0-0 4, Walker 1-4 1-4 3, Chaney 2-2 2-2 6, Kadji 4-7 0-0 8. Totals 23-50 17-27 64.

Halftime-Florida 33-25. 3-Point Goals-S. Utah 5-16 (Baker 3-6, Marek 1-4, Josserand 1-4, Thompson 0-1, Nielson 0-1), Florida 1-16 (Werner 1-6, Hodge 0-2, Walker 0-3, Calathes 0-5). Fouled Out-Clifford. Rebounds-S. Utah 30 (Baker 8), Florida 31 (Calathes 7). Assists-S. Utah 15 (Josserand 6), Florida 12 (Calathes 4). Total Fouls-S. Utah 22, Florida 12. A-10,190.

Women

FLORIDA 82, STETSON 46: Marshae Dotson scored 16 points, and Aneika Henry added 12 as Florida cruised to victory against Stetson. Dotson went 5-for-10 from the field, 6-for-6 from the free-throw line and also led the Gators with nine rebounds.

Florida (2-1) led 36-18 at halftime. Stetson (1-3) got 13 points from Jessica Biven.

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