Florida and Georgetown, teams that prefer different styles of basketball, threw a little bit of everything at each other during one of the madder games of this year's March Madness. They traded high-flying dunks, steals, three-pointers, spinning layups by guys 6-11 to 7-2, and a few old-fashioned bruises, too, before the Florida finally walked away exhausted but a57-53 winner in Friday night's second Minneapolis Regional semifinal game at the Metrodome.
A crowd of 22,293 saw the No. 3 seed Gators set a school record with their 30th victory of the season and advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since they played in the 2000 title game. They face top seed Villanova, which beat Boston College in Friday's first game, on Sunday afternoon for a trip to the Final Four.
In a game that saw 13 lead changes and seven ties, the Gators took the lead for good with 27.5 seconds left when Corey Brewer hit a medium-range shot while falling to his right and being pulled down by Georgetown's Brandon Bowman. Brewer drew the foul and made the free throw to give the Gators a 55-53 lead. They were Brewer's first points of the second half. He had only nine for the game.
"During the tournament, a lot of games are like that," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "We were very, very fortunate to win. It could've gone either way."
Or as teammate Joakim Noah put it, "Not to take anything away from Corey, but a lot of luck comes into making shots like that."
Georgetown's Darrel Owens had a chance to give the Hoyas the lead with 13.3 seconds left. Brewer fell down while guarding him at the top of the key. Owens was caught off guard by being unguarded and missed a wide-open three-point shot.
Florida's Al Horford grabbed the rebound and was fouled by Roy Hibbert. Horford made two free throws for the final margin of victory.
Georgetown prefers a half-court game, while the Gators like to run the floor and score in bunches. While the final score would suggest the Hoyas got to play their style, that wasn't necessarily the case.
Florida's big men -- 6-11 Joakim Noah and 6-9 Horford -- were too athletic for the 7-2, 283-pound Hibbert.
Noah had 15 points, 10 rebounds and five of the Gators' eight blocks. Horford had 12 points, six rebounds and two blocks. Hibbert had 15 points and seven rebounds and three blocks.
The Hoyas led by as many as nine points in the first half. One of Georgetown's runs was aided by a technical foul on the excitable Noah. He had a dunk attempt blocked, grabbed the deflection, went back up and dunked on Hibbert. The technical came after he bumped into one of the Hoyas while turning to run upcourt.
It wasn't the only exciting moment in a game that was much different than Villanova's ugly overtime victory over Boston College. This game featured a Florida school-record 100th and 101st three-pointers by Lee Humphrey. The game also featured a dynamic reverse layup by Bowman, a ballet spin move in the paint by the giant Hibbert and just about everything from Noah.
And when Noah missed inside with about 30 seconds left, it was, in typical Florida balance, someone else who stepped up. Horford tipped the ball, keeping it alive long enough for Brewer to get possession.
"Al tipped the ball and it came right too me," Brewer said. "The guy grabbed my arm and I just threw it up and it went in."
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