Florida Coach Billy Donovan has become used to the feeling of winning postseason games. In the past two seasons, it had come easily and it had come often. Most important, it had come with back-to-back national titles.
But in the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, Donovan’s Gators were no longer winning in the postseason. Florida, composed mostly of underclassmen, shot 41 percent from the field and 38 percent from the free-throw line to ensure that it would not be playing for a trophy for the first time in three years.
Massachusetts was not much better, shooting 42 percent from the field, but it did not take much for the Minutemen to book a spot in the final with a 78-66 victory. In Thursday’s championship game, UMass will face Ohio State, an 81-69 winner against Mississippi.
“On paper, we may not have the best percentages,” UMass Coach Travis Ford said, “but we seemed to make a lot shots when it counted.”
The Gators stayed in the game despite shooting 38 percent from the field in the opening 11 minutes, thanks to UMass’s 1-of-10 shooting from beyond the 3-point line. Florida made the most of its modest possessions and took a 36-27 halftime lead.
With both sides cleaning up their offensive games — slightly — in the second half, the pace picked up. Entirely deserted by their outside shooting, the Gators worked harder to push the ball in the lane. It did not work until it was too late.
UMass’s Gary Forbes led all scorers with 19 points.
In the second semifinal, Ohio State flew out to a 44-20 lead by halftime. A 13-3 run in the second half gave the Rebels a glimmer of hope, and they cut their deficit to 7 with less than two minutes to play. But the young Buckeyes, one year removed from their appearance in the national championship game, held their nerve.