‘Tougher’ Noles rough up Gators

FSU dominates in 2nd half to win 4th straight in series.

GAINESVILLE — Mike White kept going back to the same word when describing his Florida basketball team Monday night — or, rather, what his team was missing. Toughness.

And he seemed genuinely concerned about the bigger implications of the No. 5 Gators’ one-sided 83-66 loss to Florida State at the O’Connell Center.

“I thought they played harder than us; I thought they were tougher than us for 40 minutes,” White said. “Obviously much more physical than us — (23) offensive rebounds when you know it’s the key to the game and you harp on it and harp on it and harp on it the last 72 hours. ...

“What’s really disappointing is, you guys have heard me use the word soft with this team. And we use the word with our team every day, and it reared its ugly head tonight. Tonight was the epitome of soft.”

Florida (5-2) had started the season on a tear with five straight wins, a gritty double-overtime victory over Gonzaga at the PK80 tournament in Oregon and then a tough loss to No. 1 Duke after looking to be in control of the game.

What the Gators showed Monday night against unranked Florida State (7-0) was entirely different, though.

They committed a season-high 17 turnovers, were out-rebounded 51-34 (including those 23 offensive boards for FSU) and compounded that with a sloppy offensive performance in which they shot 36.2 percent from the field and 6 of 25 (24 percent) from 3-point range.

The Seminoles never trailed in the second half while ballooning their lead down the stretch for their fourth straight win in the in-state rivalry series, marking their longest such streak ever against the Gators.

“It’s a quality win. Obviously, at the end of the season, these victories mean a lot,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “Four in a row? I don’t know what that really means other than we’ve been fortunate because we lost like five in a row. I’m not really sure if we can start taking bows if we won four in a row. We didn’t hang our heads when we lost five in a row.”

Terance Mann led FSU with a career-high 25 points and 8 rebounds, while Phil Cofer added 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Florida State’s length and athleticism posed problems all night. The Seminoles altered shots, forced turnovers, controlled the boards and didn’t allow Florida many clean looks, especially from long range.

“We just spent the last 24 hours talking about throwing the first punch, being the aggressor, being proactive against a team that’s gotten the better of us the last few years,” White said. “And they threw the first three or four punches and continued throwing most of them and connected on most of them.”