ST. LOUIS – The top-seeded Florida Gators proved they could play Oregon’s game, too.
With the smaller Ducks heavily focused on the inside duo of 6-foot-10, 245-pound Al Horford and 6-foot-11, 232-pound Joakim Noah, Florida’s guards did the majority of the damage for the defending national champions on Sunday in the Elite Eight of the Midwest Region. The Gators won 85-77 and advance to their second straight Final Four.
Sharpshooter Lee Humphrey scored 23 points to lead the Gators and point guard Taurean Green added 21 points. Noah scored 14 points and Horford added six as the Gators were outscored in the paint by the Ducks, 34-24.
“We focused a lot on the bigs because they’re definitely so big on the inside, but their guards, they kind of had career nights,” Oregon guard Malik Hairston said.
And a team in Oregon that relies so heavily on the three-pointer shot 8 for 22 from long range. The Gators were 11 of 24.
Humphrey had 14 points in the first half on 4-of-8 shooting from long range and Green was 3-of-4 shooting from three-point range. Humphrey finished 7 of 13 from long range and Green was 4 of 8.
Back-to-back three pointers from Humphrey pushed the Gators to their largest lead at 10 with 8:16 remaining and they never trailed by less than six until 31 seconds remaining in the contest.
“Our bigs had a size advantage, there was no question going into the game,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. “But we’ve always been a team that’s tried to take what the defense gave us.”
Oregon’s top long-distance threat, Tajuan Porter, who had 33 points and eight threes the previous game, was 0 for 5 at half and finished just 2-for-10 from three-point range, both of those coming late in the contest.
“He had an off night and he hadn’t had too many of them,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Tajuan Porter.”
Porter finished the day with 10 points, four of those coming from the free-throw line
It was clear that he was a major focus for the Gators, which witnessed his potential in the second round against Winthrop, when he connected on 4 of 8 three pointers and against UNLV in the Sweet 16 Friday when he was 8 of 10 shooting from three-point range.
“I was getting good looks, I just wasn’t knocking them down,” the 5-foot-6 Porter said. “They had pretty good shot pressure. Every time I shot the ball, they were in my face. I just wasn’t knocking down my shot today.
“You just use this as experience and learn from it. We know what it takes to come this far. We’ve just got to keep learning.”
Charity stripe
The Ducks knew they had to be physical with the much bigger Gators. But that plan backfired as the Ducks were in foul trouble nearly the entire game with Hairston, forward Maarty Leunen and forward Joevan Catron all eventually fouling out. The Ducks committed 30 fouls, though many came late in the game, to just 14 by Florida. The Gators also capitalized by making 28 of 43 free throws while Oregon attempted only 16 for the game, making all but one.
Catron had three fouls by halftime while Hairston, Leunen and point guard Aaron Brooks each had two.
“It’s tough,” Leunen said of playing in foul trouble. “I had to play physical. Malik had to. We just got caught in bad spots sometimes and picked up fouls. Give credit to them.”
Hairston picked up his third with 2:31 gone by in the second half and fouled out with 3:54 remaining in the game and the Ducks trailing by six points. Hairston was visibly upset with the call, later saying that he was elbowed in the throat.
“Officiating is part of the game,” Hairston said. “It was definitely tough because I wanted to be out there with my basketball team. But at the same time, I had faith in my basketball team.”
Leunen fouled out with 1:24 to play and Oregon trailing by seven. Catron then fouled out with 47 seconds remaining and the game all but sealed up for the Gators.
“I just think that our size, we had to play physical,” said Brooks, who finished with four fouls. “I think that the game was called kind of ticky-tack. It went ticky-tack both ways. We’re not really a pound team, so that didn’t affect us much.”
Other notes
The Midwest Region All-Tournament team consisted of entirely all Oregon and Florida players, including Brooks, Hairston and Porter as well as Green and Humphrey from Florida. Green earned Most Outstanding Player…Porter moved into second on the NCAA all-time single-season freshman three-point list with 110…Bryce Taylor is now No. 20 on Oregon’s single-season scoring list with 523 points.