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Tuesday, Dec. 21 9:00pm ET
Gators wear down Rutgers

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Even though No. 8 Florida was only leading by 10 at the break, there was something in the halftime box that coach Billy Donovan liked.

Almost all the Rutgers starters had played big minutes.

Fatigue took a toll early as Florida opened the second half with a 26-7 run in defeating Rutgers 85-65 on Tuesday night in the nightcap of the Jimmy V Classic.

"We look at it as a 40-minute game and I think we wore them down and got them out of their offense in the second half," Donovan said after the Gators (8-1) posted their first six-game winning streak since 1993-94.

The game was a stark contrast to the opener in which No. 20 Indiana defeated No. 6 North Carolina 82-73 in a game that had all the makings of an NCAA Tournament game.

This one was simply a mismatch as the Gators had six players score in double figures. The big difference was in the second half when the Gators were 18-of-31 from the field, or 58 percent.

"Our press was a major factor," said Kenyan Weaks, who led Florida with 18 points. "We tried to come out strong in the second half, force the tempo and have them make tough decisions. I knew if we pressed them in the second half we could wear them down and take them out of the game. When that happened, their intensity level dropped and we were able to take advantage."

Mike Miller added 16 points for the Gators, Brent Wright had 14, Donnell Harvey 12, Teddy Dupay 11 and Udonis Haslem 10.

Rutgers coach Kevin Bannon said Florida destroyed his team in the second half.

"We hung around in the first half and I thought we could come back in the second half and do some things but it was just the opposite," Bannon said. "We lost our composure and fell apart at the seams. We're very disappointed."

Rutgers, trying to show it belonged in the nation's elite ranks, fell to 7-3 in losing in a tournament honoring the late Jim Valvano, a former Scarlet Knights player and assistant.

Luis Flores scored all 13 of his points in the second half to lead Rutgers, which is 4-39 against top-10 teams.

While Florida led by 10 at the half, the Gators didn't get their uptempo game going until after intermission.

Miller got the Gators going with a drive and Wright followed with a layup for a 42-28 lead. After a three-point play by Joel Salvi, his first field goal of the game, got Rutgers within 42-31, Miller hit a 3-pointer and Dupay scored on a steal and layup for 47-31 lead.

After a driving layup by Rutgers' Dahntay Jones, Florida put the game away, scoring the next 10 points. Dupay started the run with a 3-pointer and Weaks followed with a 3-pointer and two free throws, which came after a technical foul against Bannon.

After that it was garbage time.

While neither team played well in the opening half, Florida had a lot more people contributing and led 38-28.

Todd Billet and Rashod Kent combined for 19 points and eight of the Scarlet Knights' 10 field goals in the half.

The Gators never trailed after breaking a 12-12 tie, but didn't get breathing room until Miller hit a jumper from the top of the key and added a driving layup in a 9-3 spurt that put Florida ahead 27-18 with 7:02 left in the half.

Rutgers got no closer than six points the rest of the way.

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