GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Over a span of five impressive minutes, Florida (No. 7 ESPN/USA Today, No. 6 AP) showed what all the fuss has been about this season.

The Gators used the five minutes to put together a 23-0 run Thursday night and pull away from South Alabama for an 82-61 victory.

It was the ninth straight win for Florida (11-1), which can match the program's longest winning streak next Wednesday when it opens Southeastern Conference play at Vanderbilt.

"I think this team has a chance to be special," coach Billy Donovan said. "I just don't think you see normal teams go on 23-0 runs and do some of the things these guys do."

Mike Miller scored seven of his 13 points in the game-deciding stretch during which the Gators forced eight turnovers, hit two 3-pointers and converted three three-point plays.

When it was over, South Alabama (4-6) had seen its four-point deficit climb to 27 and its strong desire to slow things down buried in Donovan's smothering, trapping defense.

"We'd turn it over and they'd score and we couldn't grab it out of bounds and get it in and make another mistake quick enough," South Alabama coach Bob Weltlich said. "We didn't get it settled down, we didn't take good care of it. Then, it becomes a nightmarish run."

Miller was the key. He had a 3-pointer, a steal and an assist during the span to put an exclamation point on a strong comeback from a four-point, three-rebound performance Tuesday against VMI.

Was it Florida's best five minutes of the season?

"We certainly played well, but to say it was our best stretch depends on a lot of other things," Miller said. "We can say it was one of our better stretches. We just happened to make shots. We are capable of doing that to a lot of teams if we can wear them down and make shots."

The Jaguars left feeling they had fallen victim not only to Florida, but to the same second-half lulls that have been plaguing them all season.

Rushed into quick shots and bad passes, South Alabama had trouble getting shots off during the stretch. The eight turnovers they committed were as many as they had through the entire first half.

"Our bad stretches are catastrophic," Weltlich said. "You know you're going to have stretches like that in games. What you've got to do is minimize the damage. You go through a five-minute stretch, you want to look up and be down 10. You don't need to be down 25. What our stretches do, is they take us out of games."

The loss spoiled a solid performance by Virgil Stanescu, a 6-foot-10 center from Romania. Carving out space in the middle, Stanescu finished with 20 points, just two shy of his career high, on 10-for-17 shooting.

Ravonte Dantzler finished with nine points and six rebounds for the Jaguars, including a 3-pointer that pulled them within 40-36 with 18:56 remaining. Florida's run began just seconds later.

Kenyan Weaks led the balanced Florida offense with 17 points, including three 3-pointers.

Udonis Haslem had 14 points and freshman center Donnell Harvey finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and three steals as the Gators went undefeated in December (7-0) for first time since 1942-43.