Florida State-florida play on after player collapses.

Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton told assistants and administrators that Florida could decide whether to continue after standout forward Keyontae Johnson collapsed and was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Coach Mike White let his players make the call — not once, but twice. With tears in their eyes and their teammate’s condition uncertain, the Gators wanted to play.

They were obviously and understandably distracted the rest of the way.

Highly touted freshman Scottie Barnes scored 17 points and No. 20 Florida State extended its dominance against the visiting Gators with an 83-71 victory Saturday that came after Florida suddenly lost its best player. early in the game

Johnson, the Southeastern Conference’s preseason player of the year, was taken off the floor on a stretcher in the opening minutes and transported to Tallahassee Memorial for evaluation. Florida officials said he was in critical but stable condition and would remain there overnight.

White canceled postgame interviews to join Johnson at the hospital as his players boarded a bus for the two-hour trip back to Gainesville. Johnson’s parents were flying in from Virginia to be with their son.

Whether the game should have resumed surely will be debated. White let his players chose both times — moments after Johnson left the court and then again at halftime.

“Whatever they thought was in the best interest of their team, then I would accept it,” Hamilton said. “My administration asked me and I told them we would be OK with whatever they decided. It was my understanding that they wanted to play.”

Johnson, a junior from Norfolk, Va., had just dunked in transition a couple of minutes before he crumpled to the hardwood as the team broke its huddle. The Gators were emotional wrecks as they watch the situation unfold, and a couple of them buried their faces in towels as White gathered his team in prayer.

Several Seminoles were in tears as well and took a knee to do the same.

“Those types of things can affect you in some adverse ways,” Hamilton said. “We’re just all

No. 20 Florida State 83, Florida 71

hopeful and praying that he’s OK. If it affected our players in an emotional way, I can imagine what the situation was with his teammates.”

Officials gave both teams extra time to regroup before restarting. The Gators weren’t the same afterward.

Florida (3-1) was ahead 11-3 following Johnson’s dunk. The Seminoles (3-0) scored the next seven points and pulled away from there. They outscored the Gators 42-24 in the first half after Johnson was stricken.

The Seminoles led by as many as 18 in the second half. They ended up extending their winning streak against Florida to seven games, tying the longest by either team in the series. They also stretched their winning streak against nonconference opponents at home to 41 and won their 26th straight at home.

Barnes, Anthony Polite and M.J. Walker made this one look easy most of the day.

Missouri 81, No. 6 Illinois 78:

Missouri (5-0) held off a late charge from visiting Illinois (4-2) and overcame 36 points from Fighting Illini star Ayo Dosunmu for a victory.

No. 12 Tennessee 65, Cincinnati: 56: John Fulkerson had 15 points and 12 rebounds, helping host Tennessee (2-0) pull away late in the second half to beat the Bearcats (2-2).

No. 16 North Carolina 73, N.C. Central 67: Armando Bacot had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and North Carolina (4-2) stopped a two-game slide by holding off visiting North Carolina Central (1-3).

No. 17 Texas Tech 77, Texas A&m-corpus Christi 57: Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 15 points in his return from an ankle injury and Texas Tech (6-1) beat Texas A&m-corpus Christi (1-5) at Frisco, Texas, for coach Chris Beard’s 100th victory with the Red Raiders.

West

BYU 82, Utah 64: Connor Harding scored 17 points, Richard Harward didn’t miss a shot and had a career-high 15 points, and the host Cougars beat rival Utah. BYU (6-2) avenged last season’s 102-95 overtime road loss to the Utes (2-1).

Wyoming 93, Utah Valley 88: Hunter Maldonado had 30 points as the visiting Cowboys (5-1) edged past Utah Valley (2-3).

Colorado State 89, Colorado State-pueblo 77: David Roddy scored 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and the host Rams finally opened their season by beating Division II Colorado State-pueblo.

Arizona 69, UTEP 61: James Akinjo scored 18 points and coldshooting Arizona (5-0) held on for a win over the visiting Miners (2-2).

Oregon 74, Washington 71: Chris Duarte and Eugene Omoruyi scored 14 points apiece, Eric Williams Jr. added 14, and the visiting Ducks (4-1, 1-0 Pac-12) held on to beat rival Washington (1-4, 0-2).

Loyola Marymount 81, UC Santa Barbara 76: Dameane Douglas scored a career-high 23 points as host Loyola Marymount (3-3) edged past the Gauchos (3-1).

MATT STAMEY AP Florida forward Keyontae Johnson, the SEC preseason player of the year, collapsed on the court against Florida State and was taken to a hospital, where he was in critical condition.