BYU-Idaho Scroll

UCLA, Florida square off in hoops National Championship

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Lee Humphrey lingered outside the arc, determined to keep on shooting.

Swish. Swish. And make it three.

Appropriately enough, the Final Four longshot was doomed by the long shot.

Humphrey hit three straight 3-pointers to start the second half and Florida brought George Mason back to reality Saturday night, ending the Patriots’ stunning run through the NCAA tournament with a 73-58 victory.

In all, the Gators made a dozen shots from outside the 3-point stripe — tying a national semifinal record. Humphrey had six of them, leading Florida into Monday night’s championship game against UCLA.

“Humpty was a monster tonight,” teammate Joakim Noah said. “When he’s hitting shots like that, we’re tough to beat.”

Too tough for 11th-seeded George Mason (27-8), the charming mid-major from the suburbs of northern Virginia, which knocked off the last two national champions and half of last year’s Final Four on its way to Indy. The feel-good Patriots simply couldn’t handle an immensely talented team that has arrived at the cusp of the school’s first national title a year ahead of schedule.

“We’re playing our best basketball all year and we’re a really tough team,” said Al Horford, one of four sophomores in the starting lineup. “You can’t stop us.”

The Gators are heading to the second title game in school history. They lost to Michigan State in the 2000 final.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The UCLA defense had blocked his final shot and he had committed his final foul. Wearily, Glen Davis plopped down on the bench and shook his head.

Oh, Baby, can the Bruins play defense.

Throw some offense in there on the same night and not even LSU and its 6-foot-9, 310-pound star, the guy known as “Big Baby,” had a chance. The Bruins shut Davis down Saturday en route to a 59-45 victory over the Tigers that put them one win away from their 12th national title.

“They came out and punched us and we didn’t recover from it,” Davis said.

The last step in the quest to hang another banner at Pauley Pavilion comes Monday in the final against Florida, a 73-58 winner over George Mason in the first semifinal.

The Bruins (32-6) go in feeling good, and not really caring that their wins aren’t always the most beautiful.

On offense, the Bruins were just as good, especially early. They made three of their first four 3-pointers and shot 58 percent in the first half to push their lead to as many as 16, 3½ minutes before the break.

UCLA’s gritty style of winning might not look familiar to the faithful who watched John Wooden’s up-tempo teams in the history-making ‘60s and ‘70s, when the Bruins set the standard for winning — and doing it the right way.

“Defense wins championships and our shots fell,” Hollins said. “That’s a very, very good team we just beat tonight.”