Dorian Finney-Smith and the Florida Gators won what seemed to be a close game against Albany 67-55.

“I’m very proud of my team, I thought we really challenged them,” said Albany head coach Will Brown.

From the beginning to end, Albany played a well fought gamed and never showed an ounce of lack in confidence.

The first half seemed to be a little puzzling watching the No. 1 ranked Gators struggle against the underdogs.

It seemed to be tit-for-tat in the first half, both teams shooting around the 50% mark and very poorly from 3-point range.

One of the best shooters in all of college basketball, Michael Frazier, was completely locked down and only made one 3-pointer the entire game.

Albany came out with a full understanding that they weren’t going to lay down and let the Gators roll over them.

“We weren’t the same defensive team we were in the past,” said Gators head coach Billy Donovan after the game.

Not much change in terms of intensity from both sides, Florida certainly wasn’t playing to what the nation is accustomed of them playing, but Albany had a few constantly turnovers that led their demise late in the second half.

Dorian Finney-Smith ended the game with 18 points.

Florida capitalized on Albany’s mistakes and won the game but if this is the Florida team that will be going up against the Pittsburgh Panthers then a sense of questioning would be understandable.

Florida is the No. 1 team for a reason but they mustn’t play the same way they did tonight against Pittsburgh Saturday.

“We didn’t play our style of play, we need to come out saturday playing hard,” said Patric Young after the game.