Spartans to Wrestle Gators

After a pell-mell performance that left you gasping merely to watch it, Florida is in the NCAA championship game for the first time after a 71-59 victory over North Carolina in front of 43,116 Saturday at the RCA Dome.

Swarms of Florida players sometimes made it seem as if there were 10 of them on the floor at once.

At least it must have felt that way to the Tar Heels: Florida’s bench outscored North Carolina’s, 37-2.

It was a game of wild swings, but Florida (29-7) survived to advance to the championship game Monday against Michigan State.

The Gators went from an 18-3 start after a torrent of Tar Heel turnovers to a mere three-point lead at halftime to down by six early in the second half.

No sweat: Florida had reserves.

Start with freshman Brett Nelson, the springy-legged guard hyped as the best player out of West Virginia since Jerry West.

“Our confidence is a tribute to our style of play,” Nelson said. “We can be down 12 or 14 points, and two steals and two three-pointers and it’s a six-point game.”

Left alone again and again on the right wing after North Carolina took the lead, Nelson came off the bench to bury open jumpers and bring the Gators back, scoring eight of his team-high 13 points in the second half.

“Was I surprised how open I was? Yeah,” Nelson said. “There were high picks, and nobody was getting out or switching. I saw daylight, and I shot it.

“It was pretty much that easy.”

North Carolina guard Ed Cota was called for his fourth foul with 13:18 left and the Tar Heels leading, 50-46. The game turned even though Cota stayed in.

“It definitely changed the momentum,” Cota said. “My approach to the game was definitely different. I wasn’t being aggressive anymore. I was giving guys open shots because I didn’t want to pick up my fifth foul.”

Nelson keyed the comeback, but a basket by Udonis Haslem with a little more than 12 minutes left tied the score, 50-50. The Gators took the lead for good on a three-pointer by Major Parker, another reserve, with 11:02 left.

From the 50-50 tie, Florida outscored North Carolina, 21-9, the rest of the way.

With that, Florida ended the improbable run of the Tar Heels, who reached the Final Four after an 18-13 regular season.

The young Gators put Billy Donovan, a 34-year-old coach who played for Providence in the 1987 Final Four, into the title game.

“The way he motivates us, he just describes the way you will feel when you get there, and it’s so real it motivates you to get to the top,” guard Teddy Dupay said.

Never mind that Dupay went one for eight or that the Gators were held to 39% shooting, seven of 28 from three-point range.

“How about that? It just shows how deep a team we are when we can win like that,” Dupay said. “This was a game of swings and whoever gets the last one is going to win.”

North Carolina started the game looking like the Badgers in baby blue, with only three points after more than eight minutes, trailing, 18-3.

The Tar Heels (22-14) were completely flustered by turnovers, as good as dead after six turnovers in eight minutes against Florida’s full-court press and half-court traps.

But when Florida quit making shots, leaving the Gators unable to set up their press, North Carolina turned the tide.

North Carolina stuck to trying to force the ball into Brendan Haywood until it began to pay dividends.

By halftime, incredibly, the score was Florida 37, North Carolina 34.

Haywood had 16 points, and the Tar Heels had committed only one turnover in the final 11 minutes of the first half. (They finished with 17 in the game.) But Haywood had only four points in the second half, finishing with 20.

He handed the baton to Joseph Forte, North Carolina’s freshman leading scorer.

Seemingly overwhelmed by the RCA Dome and the Final Four in the first half, Forte went 0 for 5.

He found his stroke early in the second half, when he made four consecutive shots, including two three-pointers, for a stunning 48-42 lead with 15:43 to play. He scored 15 in the game.

But for every Carolina counterattack, Florida had an answer.

“I think they just wore us out,” North Carolina Coach Bill Guthridge said. “I was in hopes their playing 10 players would not be a factor, but I think it was. That, and our foul trouble.”

Carolina wilted early under the heat of Florida’s stifling press, not scoring its second basket until more than eight minutes into the game.

Before Cota broke the drought with a three-pointer with 11:27 left, North Carolina had six turnovers and was one for eight from the field.

This was the nation’s best shooting team, but under the pressure of the press, North Carolina faltered.

They fought back.

Just not the last time.

“Fatigue was a factor,” Haywood said. “We play six guys, sometimes seven. Some of their guys play 15 minutes a game, and we play 30 minutes a game. It’s going to be a factor because they have more energy.”

The Gators need enough for one more game.

They are a victory from winning the whole thing after surviving Butler in the first round only on a buzzer-beating shot by Mike Miller.

“Michigan State’s definitely a great ballclub,” Miller said. “They’ve been in the top three, four, maybe five the whole year.”

Make that top two, with 10 Florida players blocking the way.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

GAME 2 BREAKDOWN

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N. Carolina TALE OF THE TAPE Florida 59 Points 71 41 Rebounds 43 13 Assists 13 17 Turnovers 10 .351 Field Goal Percentage .391 .227 Three-Point Percentage .250 .609 Free-Throw Percentage .609

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