Updated at 5:42 p.m., Saturday, March 31, 2007
Defending champ Florida breezes by UCLA into final
By Eddie Pells
Associated Press
The Gators and their in-demand coach, Billy Donovan, moved one win away from a second straight national championship tonight, defeating the Bruins 76-66 behind 19 points from Corey Brewer, 16 from Chris Richard and 14 more from Lee Humphrey.
Donovan got the best of Ben Howland and Florida got the best of UCLA for the second straight year at the Final Four, adding this semifinal win to a 73-57 rout in last year's title game.
This victory for the Gators (34-5) set up another sort of rematch. They'll play Ohio State on Monday in the final, hoping for the same kind of result as their 27-point victory in the championship football game earlier this year.
The football coaches, OSU's Jim Tressel and Florida's Urban Meyer, were on the sidelines for this one, too, but only as spectators. The real stars were Brewer, Humphrey (three 3-pointers in the second half), Joakim Noah and, of course, Donovan, who the Gator faithful hope will rebuff a possible offer from Kentucky come season's end to keep building on the small dynasty he's created in Gainesville.
That drama will have to wait at least a couple more days, thanks to a wear-'em-down kind of effort that looked pretty much like what the Gators did to the Bruins last year.
The entire starting lineup came back for a repeat and with one more win, Florida will become the first team to go back-to-back since Duke in 1992 and the first ever to do it with the same starting five.
UCLA (30-6), still stuck on 11 titles, thought it brought a more experienced, better team to Atlanta, and that might have been true. But Bruins guard Arron Afflalo sat on the bench for almost the entire first half with foul trouble and center Lorenzo Mata joined him.
That took a bite out of UCLA's early tenacious defensive effort, and when Brewer started going off -- swishing two 3-pointers in consecutive trips down the floor -- the Gators were running to a 26-16 lead and UCLA never much threatened after that.
As impressive as Brewer looked on offense, it was a pair of defensive sequences during that stretch that told the bigger story.
Once, UCLA had a fast break and some decent numbers, but 6-foot-10 forward Al Horford simply stood under the basket and swatted away Alfred Aboya's shot for one stop. A moment later, Noah got in the way of Luc Richard Mbah a Boute in his attempt to go up strong in the paint. Mbah a Boute's head fake shook Noah, but Brewer simply came from behind to swat the shot.
There was plenty more of that.
Florida finished with six blocked shots and countless more that were altered or not taken at all once the Bruins worked it down low. Noah, supposedly Florida's best player, finished with only eight points but had 11 rebounds and a monster defensive game -- typical of the star player on a team that hasn't seemed to care who gets the credit this season.
In fact, all five Florida starters average in double figures this season yet not one of them averages more than 10 shots a game. On this day, it was Brewer and Humphrey's turn to score.
Brewer did the damage in the first half, making all eight shots he took -- three from 3, four free throws and one layup. Humphrey put the dagger in late, making three 3-pointers in an early second-half run similar to the one he fashioned to put George Mason away in last year's semis.
Brewer finished hitting 5 of 7 field-goal attempts, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Humphrey hit 5 of 9, including 4 of 8 from 3-point range.