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Calathes, Defense Lift Gators To Win

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By MICK ELLIOTT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 18, 2009

GAINESVILLE - Three games - all wins, incidentally - into the University of Florida's Southeastern Conference basketball season, it is not a well-kept secret that the Gators go where sophomore guard Nick Calathes takes them.

Saturday afternoon in the O'Connell Center against the Arkansas Razorbacks, the Gators went a little wild.

Florida's 80-65 victory was far from polished and short of complete, but it definitely was powered by Calathes. It also was the Gators' 10th consecutive victory, pushing the young squad - 12 freshmen or sophomores - to 16-2 on the season and into a tie with Kentucky for the SEC East Division lead.

The 6-foot-6 Calathes finished with a game-high 28 points while also pulling down 10 rebounds - his third double-double of the season. But besides hitting 11 of 18 shots (six of 10 from outside the arch), what he did best was keep Florida in the game early with 14 first-half points. Somehow, the Gators even managed a 37-34 halftime lead despite converting 13 of 36 shots and only three of 17 from 3-point range in the first half.

Then during intermission the Gators' national championship football team again was acknowledged, quarterback Tim Tebow spoke and, apparently, healed his basketball brothers' shooting woes.

In the second half, the Gators hit 16 of 29 shots, including eight of 13 from 3-point range.

"Two things in the first half," Gators coach Billy Donovan said. "We didn't shoot the ball particularly well and we had a lot of foul trouble.

"Calathes kept us in it early. And I think the big thing was our guys were able to rebound a little bit. Then, in the second half, we started to get in a little rhythm. We made shots."

In the second half, the Gators hit eight of 13 3-point attempts, but it was an annoying zone defense that broke the game open by twice forcing shot-clock violations and holding the Razorbacks scoreless for more than four-and-a-half minutes.

"We were just focusing on trying to get stops," Calathes said. "That's the main thing because I think our offense will take care of itself.

"That's our team. We can hit 14 3s in a game, or we can hit two 3s. We are probably one of the best shooting teams in the SEC, I'd say. When they fall, it's tough to beat us, but when they don't fall we got to get stops on the defensive end."

Arkansas, which has wins over ranked Texas (11th) and Oklahoma (sixth), dropped to 12-4 and 0-3 in the conference.

"Nick Calathes was tremendous," Arkansas coach John Pelphrey, a former UF assistant to Donovan from 1997-2002, said. "He made a bunch of 3-point shots. And he's a great passer."

Four other Gators joined Calathes in double figures. Five-foot-8 freshman guard Erving Walker came off the bench to score 13, while inside players Alex Tyus had 11 and Chandler Parsons 10. Six-foot-10 freshman Kenny Kadji scored 10 as a reserve.

Promising for the Gators push for improvement was a 39-33 rebounding advantage. Sixteen of them were offensive.

Despite winning its SEC opener against Ole Miss, Florida was outrebounded 49-25. But in the two games since, the Gators have won the battle of the boards.

Reporter Mick Elliott can be reached at (813) 281-2534.

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