MEMPHIS - Florida point guard Scottie Wilbekin headed to the free-throw line with a knowing smile on his face, sharing a quick chest bump along the way with Casey Prather.
There were still 37 seconds to go in Saturday’s matchup with the Dayton Flyers. This time, though, nothing was going to keep the Gators from making the next step.
Florida is headed to the Final Four after ending the Flyers’ Cinderella run at the NCAA Tournament and validating the Gators’ magical season with a 62-52 victory.
The Gators had stumbled to three consecutive Elite Eight losses, twice seeing large second-half leads slip away. But the winningest senior class in school history made the most of its best and final chance.
“We’ve been on the other side of it before,” center Patric Young said. “It feels really good not to be on the other side because we’ve been close.”
Even though the Gators (36-2) entered Saturday’s matchup a 10-point favorite and were riding a 29-game winning streak, when the final horn sounded Young put his hands on his head in disbelief.
“It still hadn’t hit me we would be one of final four teams in the country playing,” he said.
Dayton, who finished fifth in the Atlantic-10 Conference, reached the South Regional final by playing with relentless energy and an 11-deep roster that carried the Flyers to upsets of Ohio State, Syracuse and Stanford.
The Flyers (26-11) stuck with the Gators for much of the second half, but after Dayton forward Kendall Pollard tied the game 23-23 with 4:40 left before halftime, Florida pulled away.
Once again, Wilbekin led the way.
Wilbekin tied his career-high with 23 points, including 14 during the first half to help the Gators break open a close game. Named the most outstanding player of the South Regional, Wilbekin also finished without a turnover for the second consecutive game.
The highlight was Wilbekin’s third halftime buzzer-beating three-pointer of the postseason, joining shots he made against Tennessee in the SEC Tournament and Pittsburgh in the NCAA Tournament round of 32.
The shot capped a 15-1 run. As the buzzer sounded, Wilbekin turned his back to the basket, raised his arms to his side and sprinted toward the Gators’ locker room, his team ahead 38-24 - Florida’s largest halftime lead since the regular-season finale against Kentucky.
The Flyers quickly drained 2 three-pointers to cut the lead to 38-30 and fired up a FedEx Forum crowd of 15,443 that included a large Dayton contingent. But with “Let’s Go Flyers” chants raining down, Dayton missed its 3 threes as the Gators re-established control by attacking the basket.
Dayton, looking for its first Final Four bid since 1967, had no one to match Young. Florida took a 53-36 lead with 11:25 remaining on a layup by the 6-foot-9, 240-pound Gator, who finished with 12 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots.
Dyshawn Pierre’s layup with 3:55 to go cut the lead to 58-50, but the Flyers could never get closer.
Sports, Pages 30 on 03/30/2014