ORLANDO — After Scottie Wilbekin failed to impress throughout his team’s lackluster win against No. 16 seed Albany on Thursday, the senior point guard took it as a personal challenge to elevate his game.
Did he ever Saturday.
During Florida’s 61-45 win against Pittsburgh in the Amway Center, Wilbekin scored 21 points — two shy of his career high — on 9-of-15 shooting to help his team advance to the Sweet 16 for the fourth consecutive season.
UF learned that its opponent Thursday in Memphis would be No. 4 seed UCLA, which defeated No. 12 seed Stephen F. Austin on Sunday to reach the South Region semifinals.
“We just wanted to come out and not let them play harder than us,” Wilbekin said.
From the opening tipoff, no player on the floor was as productive as Wilbekin. Throughout the contest, the senior point guard bailed out the Gators (34-2) when they needed him most. During the first half, Pitt (26-10) hung close with UF, trailing by only two points near the half’s end.
Then, Wilbekin played the hero role.
With five seconds left on the clock coming out of a timeout, Wilbekin drove down the court, launched off one foot from beyond the top of the arc and released a three-pointer.
As the halftime buzzer sounded, the shot found net and Wilbekin headed toward the tunnel with a giant smile as his team entered the break leading by five points.
“That’s the look that I hoped for in that situation,” Wilbekin said. “I don’t really shoot too many runner threes, but it went in, and I was pretty happy about it.”
Senior center Patric Young knew Wilbekin was going to try to make the big play.
“I could just see it in his eyes when it came down to the last 10 seconds of the shot clock,” Young said. “He was like, ‘I’m going to create something here.’”
The play provided Wilbekin and the Gators plenty of momentum going forward.
Florida opened the second half firing, increasing its lead to 11 points about 10 minutes in. After that, Wilbekin provided the fuel to help maintain Florida’s advantage.
The point guard caught Pittsburgh off guard driving the ball to the lane on multiple occasions. During a stretch of 4:18, Wilbekin scored nine points on three drives to the hoop and a three-pointer.
“I thought as the game wore on, we were able to make their big guys late to get all the way out there like they normally do,” coach Billy Donovan said. “Scottie was able to turn the corner, Kasey Hill was able to turn the corner and we were able to get the ball down the lane.”
Added Michael Frazier II: “When you have a guy like that, usually you have to give him the ball and move out his way. He was hot and he gave us that offensive boost, and we needed it.”
Frazier added 10 points on 2-of-9 three-point shooting, while Young recorded seven points and eight boards.
The senior center’s most dynamic play of the game came in the second half when he swatted Pitt guard James Robinson’s layup out of bounds.
“I saw that [Robinson] was beat,” Young said. “I hate going for help-side blocks, because if you’re not going to get it and he gets it high enough and if he misses it, then your man is going to get the rebound. I saw he was trying to roll it up, and I was like, ‘I’m all over that one.’”
Florida took Pittsburgh — a methodical, halfcourt team — out of its comfort zone for much of the game by speeding up the tempo and sending the full-court press. The Panthers finished the game with a 37.3-percent shooting clip and 11 turnovers to the Gators’ six.
Now, Memphis-bound No. 1 seed Florida looks ahead to facing the winner of Sunday’s matchup between fourth-seeded UCLA and 12th-seeded Stephen F. Austin next Thursday.
After an up-and-down opening weekend in Orlando, the Gators aren’t taking anything for granted.
“I enjoy that we’re here, that we have the opportunity to continue to play, but I’m not going to be happy or satisfied until we reach our goal,” Young said.
“I’m not going to say it’s a failure if we fall short, but there is just so much potential in this team and greatness within us that if we go out and play like we did against Albany and allow a team to just take it from us, then we’re cutting ourselves short.”
Follow Landon Watnick on Twitter @LandonWatnick
Scottie Wilbekin drives the lane Saturday in Florida's 61-45 victory over Pitt.
