ORLANDO, Fla. _ Florida senior forward Justin Leon picked a nice time to have one of his best games as a Gator.
It had been nearly a month since Leon had reached double digits, but his 14 points Saturday night couldn't have come at a better time. The senior forward sparked Florida to a 65-39 NCAA Tournament second-round victory over Virginia and a spot in the Sweet 16.
Devin Robinson also had 14 points and added 11 rebounds as the Gators ran Virginia off the floor at Amway Center, advancing to the East Region semifinals for a matchup with No. 8-seeded Wisconsin at Madison Square Garden in New York Friday.
"We've played really well at times this year. This team's been through a lot of adversity," UF coach Mike White said during the TNT broadcast team after the game, praising his team for playing aggressive defense.
The last time the Gators (26-8) advanced to the Sweet 16 was in 2014, they lost in the national semifinals to eventual national champion UConn.
UF took advantage of a nearly eight minute scoreless stretch for Virginia that started near the end of the first half and carried over into the first three minutes of the second half. The Cavaliers could never recover from that point.
Florida coach Mike White said Friday that he had several players who could lead his team and he was comfortable with anyone of them taking the reigns to give the Gators an offensive lift.
He probably didn't mean they would all do it at the same time. Against Virginia, a collaborative effort overwhelmed the ACC Cavaliers (23-11).
White talked prior to the game about how the Gators needed to control the tempo, rebound on defense, convert when they were forced into a half-court offense and ramp up the defensive pressure. They did it all and then some.
This game was all but over by halftime. The biggest early contributor was Robinson, who also led the Gators with 24 points Thursday against ETSU. The Virginia native took over in the first half as if he was on a mission to prove Virginia should have recruited him out of Chesterfield (Va.) Christchurch School.
Robinson, whose mother is a Virginia alum, had seven points and eight rebounds in the first half alone.
"We knew we could do it defensive-wise," Robinson said. " ... We're going to go down fighting and we're just going to keep going hard."
While Robinson gave UF a big lift early in the first half, Leon, whose last double-digit game was 13 points against Kentucky Feb. 25, resurfaced in the latter part of the opening 20 minutes. He scored eight straight points and also pulled down five rebounds.
The pair also applied relentless defense down low that carried over to the rest of the team and Virginia started to appear rattled. The Cavilers failed to score in the final five minutes of the first half and had just two field goals in the last 11:40 before the break.
Virginia, usually a patient and deliberate shooting team that hit 46.5 percent of its field goals in the regular season, hit just 8 of 28 shots (28.6 percent) in the first half as the Gators opened up a 31-17 halftime lead
Even Australian freshman Gorjok Gak showed moments of domination early in the first half, grabbing key rebounds and rattling the rim on a thunderous dunk off a fast-break pass from Chris Chiozza.
Gak played just twice in the past 11 games but he's offered his teammates key minutes in Orlando. He played seven minutes in Thursday's first-round victory over East Tennessee State, giving starting center Kevarrius Hayes a breather and applying strong defensive pressure. He's become a nice surprise in this tournament for White, showing he can be counted on to provide stints of relief.
UF started things off doing exactly what it didn't want to do. Virginia snagged two offensive rebounds on its first possession and controlled things underneath in the early stages, taking a 6-2 lead.
The Gators battled back, however, and after a Gak offensive rebound led to a Robinson bucket and then Gak's dunk and a pair of free throws from Canyon Berry, UF grabbed a 17-13 lead that it continued to build upon the first of the first half.
Another critical part of the Gators' victory was senior Kasey Hill's defense on Virginia leading scorer London Perrantes. Hill held Perrantes to just six points on 2-of-12 shooting, and the Cavs senior appeared to be pressing for most of the game. He didn't hit his second field goal until the 9:45 mark of the second half, but it was too late.
