It was ugly but No. 1 Florida took down FSU, 81-72

The ugly wins count just the same in the standings as those 40-minute sprints punctuated by threes raining from the rafters and gravity-defying dunks. Anyone who came to Tallahassee's Tucker Center Tuesday night expecting a fast-paced, aesthetically pleasing basketball game was in for a rather rude awakening. What they got instead was a bell-to-bell bare knuckles backyard brawl from which No. 1-ranked Florida (3-0) emerged with an 81-72 win over Florida State (2-1).

This was a grinder of a game in which FSU managed to stay too close for comfort, partly because the Gators missed too many wide open shots and turned the ball over 14 times which led to 17 points by the Seminoles. The nine-point final margin of victory could have and should have been at least 20 points but there are going to be nights like this in which championship capable teams have to slog their way through by finding ways to compensate for mistakes that aren't part of the normal process. Average teams wilt when shots don't fall and turnovers mount. The Gators didn't wilt. Instead they got creative to find new avenues to carve out a win.

In contrast to the Gators' two wins last week that were punctuated by near perfect execution on the offensive end, this one was heavily reliant on defense and physicality. FSU wanted to wear the Gators down with physical play and zone defenses that cut off passing angles needed to get the inside game going. In adapting that strategy, FSU almost dared the Gators to beat them with their outside shooting. They accomplished curtailing Florida's inside game, holding Alex Condon (nine points, 10 rebounds) and Rueben Chinyelu (eight points, six rebounds) to a combined 17 points.

The FSU zone successfully denied the easy entry passes down in the low blocks, contributing mightily to Condon and Chinyelu squeezing off 10 shots between them. The Seminoles were successful in keeping the Gators from dominating in the paint, but lost the gamble on threes. Led by Tommy Haugh, who hit 3-6 of his long distance shots en route to a 21-point, 10-rebound effort, the Gators hit enough threes, 9-28 for 32.1 percent, to have a substantial difference in the outcome. The Gators shot better than 40 percent from the three-point line in wins over Miami and Jacksonville.

It wasn't bad strategy by the Seminoles. If anything, it was borderline brilliant. The Seminoles kept Chinyelu and Condon from big offensive nights and the zones slowed down Florida's offense, holding the Gators to a mere 51 shots from the field (22 made). Had the Seminoles been able to defend without fouling, the game plan might have worked to near perfection.

"Florida State's very tricky because they switch defenses so much and they try to mask what they're in and try to keep you confused," Florida coach Todd Golden said. "And it's really hard to go against especially in a loud gym where I'm trying to communicate with our team or our point guard and nobody can hear anything."

Where the Gators were able to compensate was at the foul line where they caught fire in the second half. The Gators were barely ahead (39-36) after Alex Condon scored to the left of the foul lane. Fouled on the play, Condon threw up a SCUD that made the Gators 4-11 on their free throws and there was still 15:49 left to be played. To continue fouling made sense for FSU. The Gators were missing shots and they were hitting just enough to keep the game close.

Things changed for good when Urban Klavzar was fouled while launching a three from the top of the key. He drained all three shots from the foul line then added two more on Florida's next possession. Another 13 straight free throws followed, keeping the Gators ahead by as many as 11 points.

It wasn't until 39.7 seconds left in the game that an 18-18 streak of made free throws came to an end on a miss by Tommy Haugh. A second chance layup by Boogie Fland with 4:28 left in the game that made it a 64-54 margin was the last made shot from the field by the Gators who were content to keep adding points at the foul line.

The difference in the game was found in four areas. Florida outscored the Seminoles 30-14 at the foul line, outrebounded them 41-29, outscored them on three-pointers by a 27-12 margin and off the bench 22-6.

The 18-straight at the foul line speaks for itself. By outrebounding the Seminoles by 12, the Gators forced a lot of one-and-done possessions. The front line of Haugh (10), Condon (10) and Rueben Chinyelu (6) combined for nearly as many rebounds (26) as the entire FSU team (29).

Even though the Gators had their worst three-point shooting night of the still young season, they still made nine while holding the Seminoles to a rotten 4-21. FSU missed all eight of its threes in the first half and had missed 12 straight when Shon Abaev finally knocked one down early in the second half. Only a pair of threes by Anthony Robinson in the final 1:12 brought the Seminoles up to 19 percent.

Part of Florida's defensive strategy was to force leading scorer Sebastian Rancik and Abaev off their comfort spots to take threes from less familiar spots on the floor. The two were held to a combined 2-12 effort on threes.

"I thought we did a really good job of forcing the right guys to take them from the right spots and I think Florida State's good at a lot of things," Golden said. "I'm not sure if they're not an elite shooting team, and I know what a non-elite shooting team looks like. We've been that for a little bit and we really wanted to prevent them from getting in the paint, getting into the rim, whether it's Rancik, whether it's Anthony, whether it's Abaev or (Kameron) Taylor. Like, these guys are really difficult to guard when they get downhill."

Florida outscored the Seminoles 22-6 off the bench. Klavzar, held scoreless in the first half, had a poor night (1-7) shooting threes, but hit all seven of his free throws. Isaiah Brown injected energy at both ends of the court with nine points, three rebounds and a steal. He made 2-3 from the three-point line. Domen Petrovic added three points, three rebounds and a pair of assists.

Brown's first three came with 5:35 remaining in the first half, giving the Gators a 23-20 lead. Petrovic made it a five-point game (28-23) with 2:54 left in the half with a three ball from the corner.

"Obviously his [Brown's] ability to give us nine points off the bench, hit two big threes in each half that were really kind of, they settled us down," Golden said. "Great transition finish. I thought he was, you know, he was just impactful on the floor. I thought him and Urby were very good that way. I thought DP (Petrovic) honestly played fine. You know, we can't afford the turnovers he had, but he made some good winning plays out there as well. Our bench did a really good job."

There is no getting around the fact that this was an ugly game from start to finish, but it was the kind of win that will pay dividends for the Gators down the road. Tough teams find ways to handle adversarial situations and still come away with the win which the Gators proved capable of Tuesday night. Not every win is going to be pretty, but the ugly ones count just the same in the standings.

Game notes: Haugh (21), Fland (14) and Klavzar (10) were Florida's only double figures scorers ... Fland, who left the game with a shoulder injury with 16:05 remaining to be played, came back into the game five minutes later and was instrumental down the stretch. He finished with 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and one steal ... The win kept Todd Golden's record against FSU perfect at 5-0.

SEC Tuesday night

Vanderbilt (3-0) 105, Memphis (2-1) 81: Ace Glass hit 5-10 from three to lead Vanderbilt with 23 points while Tyler Tanner had 17 points, five rebounds, two assists and three steals.

No. 15 Kansas (3-0) 89, No. 24 Kentucky (2-1) 69: Kentucky made only 4-21 of its three-point shots compared to 10-26 for Kansas in the battle of college basketball's two winningest programs of all time. Zoom Diallo led Kentucky with 24 points. Milan Momcilovic managed only five points and was able to launch only three three-point shots.

Ole Miss (3-0) 91, Southeastern Louisiana (1-2) 51: Seton Hall transfer Adam Clark scored 23 to lead Ole Miss past Southeastern Louisiana.

Wednesday's games

Saint Peter's (0-3) at South Carolina (2-0) Robert Morris (0-2) at No. 19 Arkansas (1-1)

Thursday's game

Oklahoma State (2-0) at Texas A&M (3-0)

Friday's games

Merrimack (1-2) at No. 1 FLORIDA (3-0) Tennessee State (2-1) at No. 11 Tennessee (2-0) Seton Hall (3-0) at No. 18 Alabama (3-0) Central Arkansas (2-1) at No. 19 Arkansas (1-1) Prairie View A&M (2-2) at No. 22 Vanderbilt (3-0) Northern Arizona (0-3) at No. 24 Kentucky (2-1) Georgia (3-0) at North Carolina (3-0) Fairleigh Dickinson (1-2) at Oklahoma (2-1) No. 12 Arizona (2-1) at Auburn (2-0) Xavier (3-0) at Mississippi State (3-0)