The men's basketball team gave No. 13 Florida all it could handle, cutting a large second-half deficit down to single digits with a little under five minutes left, but the Gators were just too strong as they claimed a 101-84 win Monday night in front of a crowd of 9,122 at the O'Connell Center.
Florida (7-2) opened up its largest lead of the game at 69-43 after a layup by David Lee at the 16:55 mark of the second half. Lee made all 12 of his field goal attempts, tying an Southeastern Conference record for shooting accuracy, and finished with a game-high 24 points.
The Husky defense clamped down, holding the Gators without a point for the next 4:45 and without a field goal for the next 7:49. A layup by sophomore guard Jose Juan Barea with 15:49 left to play sparked a 19-2 Husky run, after which the score stood at 71-62 with 9:21 showing on the clock. Barea scored 17 points and had a game-high eight assists.
Northeastern (5-5) continued to hang around, getting as close as eight at 82-74 with 4:30 remaining after another Barea layup, but Florida made several big shots down the stretch to hold off the Huskies.
The first half was very much like the first. Florida took a 24-14 lead after a Rashid Al-Keleem 3-pointer with 11:45 left in the half, but the Huskies scored the next nine points to close within one. The Gators, however, finished the half on a 33-10 run to go into the locker room up 57-33.
Junior Marcus Barnes led the Huskies with 20 points. He was 5-of-8 from 3-point range. Senior swingman Javorie Wilson contributed 12 points, while senior center Cornellius Wright added a season-high 10.
The hosts shot a sizzling 62 percent (42-of-68) from the floor.
The team will take a few days off over the holiday before returning to action Monday, Dec. 29 for a 7 p.m. game against Curry College at Solomon Court.
Official Basketball Box Score -- GAME TOTALS -- FINAL STATISTICS
Northeastern vs Florida
12/22/03 7:00 at Stephen C. O'Connell Center
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VISITORS: Northeastern 5-5
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
04 Wilson, Javorie..... f 3-8 2-5 4-6 2 2 4 4 12 1 2 0 2 31
33 Robinson, Sylbrin... f 3-4 0-0 3-5 4 3 7 1 9 1 3 0 2 36
30 Wright, Cornellius.. c 4-7 0-0 2-5 4 3 7 2 10 0 2 0 0 13
03 Barnes, Marcus...... g 6-15 5-8 3-4 1 2 3 2 20 2 2 0 2 36
05 Barea, Jose Juan.... g 7-17 0-4 3-6 0 4 4 2 17 8 4 0 3 36
02 Youmans, D'wan...... 0-0 0-0 3-4 1 0 1 1 3 2 0 0 0 13
14 Davis, Bennet....... 3-7 0-0 2-6 2 3 5 4 8 0 2 0 1 24
22 Kelly, Bobby........ 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 5
32 Dunn, Jesse......... 1-2 1-2 0-0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 6
TEAM................
Totals.............. 28-62 8-19 20-36 14 17 31 18 84 14 15 0 10 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-33 36.4% 2nd Half: 16-29 55.2% Game: 45.2% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 5-12 41.7% 2nd Half: 3-7 42.9% Game: 42.1% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 4-13 30.8% 2nd Half: 16-23 69.6% Game: 55.6% 9,1
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HOME TEAM: Florida 7-2
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
24 David Lee........... f 12-12 0-0 0-0 2 8 10 3 24 3 2 2 2 31
44 Matt Walsh.......... f 5-14 2-6 1-2 1 5 6 3 13 6 1 0 1 31
42 Bonell Colas........ c 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 1 2 0 1 0 0 13
01 Anthony Roberson.... g 6-11 3-6 2-2 0 0 0 4 17 5 4 0 1 27
10 Christian Drejer.... g 7-11 2-5 4-5 1 2 3 4 20 5 1 1 0 30
04 Adrian Moss......... 4-5 0-0 0-2 3 3 6 5 8 3 3 2 4 18
12 Lee Humphrey........ 1-2 1-1 0-0 0 1 1 1 3 0 1 0 0 9
21 Mohamed Abukar...... 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 1 3 2 2 5 3 0 0 19
22 Rashid Al-Kaleem.... 2-5 1-3 0-0 0 0 0 1 5 2 2 0 0 8
23 Ryan Appleby........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1
32 Chris Richard....... 3-4 0-0 1-3 1 6 7 2 7 0 1 1 1 13
TEAM................ 2 1 3 1
Totals.............. 42-68 9-22 8-14 13 27 40 26 101 30 21 6 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 25-40 62.5% 2nd Half: 17-28 60.7% Game: 61.8% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-9 33.3% 2nd Half: 6-13 46.2% Game: 40.9% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 4-6 66.7% 2nd Half: 4-8 50.0% Game: 57.1% 1
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Officials: Rick Crawford, Tracy Woodson, Mike Nance
Technical fouls: Northeastern-TEAM. Florida-None.
Attendance: 9122
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Northeastern.................. 33 51 - 84
Florida....................... 57 44 - 101
Points in the paint-NU 40,UF 54. Points off turnovers-NU 18,UF 11.
2nd chance points-NU 12,UF 15. Fast break points-NU 15,UF 10.
Bench points-NU 16,UF 25. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-0 times.
Last FG-NU 2nd-00:32, UF 2nd-00:40.
