ARLINGTON, Texas — The most captivating Cinderella story of this NCAA Tournament saw its final chapter written last night. Florida Gulf Coast’s run is over, but the Florida Gators are still going strong after a 62-50 Sweet 16 victory.
Florida may not have been America’s choice, with the nation getting behind tiny 15th seed Florida Gulf Coast, their teenage school and self-made millionaire coach with his supermodel wife. But the third-seeded Gators (29-7) had game-changing defense, and they had New Jersey native Mike Rosario. That was enough.
The 6-foot-3 shooting guard — a transfer from Rutgers who led St. Anthony of Jersey City to a national championship as a senior — is hoping to do the same with his Gators. After scoring a game-high 15 points in front of 40,639 at Cowboys Stadium, he helped them into tomorrow’s 2:20 p.m. South Region final versus Michigan and within a step of the Final Four in Atlanta.
The SEC regular-season champions came out on top of an unexpected intrastate showdown — the first ever in the Sweet 16 — with Florida Gulf Coast (26-11). Their fans chanted “Almost midnight! Almost midnight!” as they rung the clock on Cinderella, making 10 steals and forcing 19 turnovers.
The Eagles had become media darlings with coach Andy Enfield, who had made millions in the early stages of a startup company while living on the Upper West Side and married model Amanda Marcum. He went back to coaching and guided unlikely FGCU to upsets of No. 2 seed Georgetown and seventh-seeded San Diego State.
Dunk City was off and running into their high-wire act early. They went out to a quick 15-4 lead, Chase Fieler’s 3-pointer sending the heavily-favored Gators into a timeout. After Eddie Murray’s dunk gave the Eagles a 23-11 lead, the Eagles went ice cold and the Gators stormed back with a 19-1 run.
Rosario hit a corner 3-pointer in front of the FGCU bench to put Florida up 27-24 with under two minutes left in the half. And his steal led to Kenny Boynton’s three-point play with 56.3 remaining and a six-point lead.
The Eagles committed six turnovers and missed both their foul shots in the last seven minutes of the half, going into the locker room down 30-26. They had to stew on the knowledge they had outshot Florida 56.3 percent to 34.4 percent, but given the Gators twice as many shots because of their own sloppiness.
It didn’t get much better.
Florida reeled off the first seven points after the break, Rosario making a layup and then a jumper for a 37-26 lead just 1:21 into the second half.
The Eagles reached the Sweet 16 in only their second season being eligible for the tournament. Enfield had estimated Florida, the flagship state school with almost 50,000 students, had an athletic budget about $100 million bigger than Florida Gulf Coast’s. Behind Rockville Centre’s Billy Donovan, the Gators have become a basketball heavyweight as well as a football power.
They won consecutive national titles in 2006 and 2007 and have reached the Elite Eight for three straight seasons. Now seniors Rosario, Boynton and Erik Murphy hope to go one step further, while the upstart Eagles of Florida Gulf Coast are going home.