Defending champs take out Purdue, face Butler next

Memphis had little trouble eliminating Nevada.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS -- Al Horford flexed his biceps and offered an imposing stare as he posed for television cameras.
Florida's most physical player had reason to show off a little bit.
Horford had 17 points and nine rebounds and helped the defending national champions withstand a game effort by plucky Purdue in a 74-67 victory Sunday in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
"I guess they felt like they were going to make Al score one on one," teammate Corey Brewer said. "They made a bad decision."
Ninth-seeded Purdue played just about how it wanted against the Gators -- slowing down the tempo, rebounding well with a smaller lineup and keeping the game close much of the way.
But the top-seeded Gators took advantage of their tournament experience.
They never panicked and made several clutch shots down the stretch to advance to the round of 16.
Grand finale
Horford had three big buckets in the final minutes, and Brewer hit a spinning jumper and then made six consecutive free throws to seal Florida's 14th consecutive postseason win.
"We knew we had to make plays down the stretch to win," said Brewer, who finished with 17 points and eight boards.
"We couldn't get frustrated because they were going to be physical; they were physical the whole game. We just took it upon ourselves and just made plays."
Especially Horford.
"If I'm in a rhythm and I'm feeling comfortable, I want to get the ball and I want to make plays for the team," he said.
The Gators (31-5), trying to become the first team to repeat as champions since Duke in 1992, advanced to play fifth-seeded Butler in the Midwest Regional semifinals on Friday in St. Louis.
Boilermakers
Carl Landry led Purdue (22-12) with 18 points and 10 rebounds. David Teague and Chris Kramer added 14 each.
"They just made big plays," Teague said. "They capitalized on a couple of turnovers and a couple of miscues ... and that is what champions do: they step up and make plays down the stretch."
Florida trailed by five points in the first half and was down at halftime for the first time in nearly three weeks.
But the Gators slowly started to impose their will on the undersized Boilermakers.
It started with the 6-foot-10 Horford, who backed down the 6-7 Landry all game. Horford's post presence also opened several outside shots.
Florida missed most of them in the first half -- the Gators were 2-of-10 from behind the arc -- but Taurean Green hit consecutive 3s to put the team ahead 43-38 with 12:35 remaining.
Memphis 78, Nevada 62
John Calipari's Memphis Tigers finally have a victory worth bragging about in their run of 24 straight.
Chris Douglas-Roberts scored 16 points before leaving with a sprained ankle and his high-flying, versatile teammates took over from there for a 78-62 victory over Nick Fazekas and Nevada.
Memphis will take the nation's longest winning streak to San Antonio for a showdown Thursday against third-seeded Texas A & amp;M.
The second-seeded Tigers (32-3) hadn't played a team as good as the Wolf Pack (29-5) since their last loss to Arizona, back on Dec. 20. They showed they were up to the task by never trailing after going down 2-0, and shutting out the Wolf Pack the final 6:17.
Jeremy Hunt scored 16 and Antonio Anderson added 14 points and 10 rebounds for Memphis.
Fazekas, the three-time Western Athletic Conference player of the year, missed his first six shots but finished 7-of-18 for 20 points with seven rebounds.