Florida 82, Weber St. 74SEATTLE -- Harold Arceneaux is "The Show," and the NCAA Tournament served as his stage.
Unfortunately, the final act of Arceneaux's season was a tragedy as Florida knocked off the Wildcats and ended their Cinderella season.
Ron Abegglen's Weber State coaching career ended with a 82-74 overtime loss to the 6-seed Gators.
Arceneaux continued his impressive postseason as the WSU forward scored 32 points for the Wildcats (25-8) and nearly led them to the first Sweet 16 appearance in school history.
"We would have liked to go farther," Arceneaux said. "But we showed the nation we can play at that level."
Weber State may have lived to play another round or two but simply ran out of gas down the stretch.
Florida coach Billy Donovan said his focus was to try and wear the Wildcats out. He said he wanted to make Arceneaux work hard ondefense, if for no other reason than to make him a little more tired on the offensive end.
Arceneaux scored just 11 total points in the second half and overtime periods.
It was clear at the end of the game that Donovan got his wish, as Weber State struggled to get quality shots off.
"If you allow them to be free at the end of the game, they're good enough to beat you," Donovan said. "I don't know if they were fatigued or not . . . but they played a lot of hard, tough minutes."
The Wildcats scratched, clawed and fought their way through a physically demanding second half and nearly pulled off another upset before faltering.
And despite being worked to the brink by the athletic Gators, WSU still came within a single shot of wearing the Cinderella slipper for another week.
Noel Jackson pump-faked his defender into the air with 8.2 seconds to play in regulation and drew a three-shot foul with the 'Cats trailing 68-66.
A Florida timeout didn't faze Jackson as he calmly hit the first free throw.
Donovan called another timeout, and Jackosn missed the second free throw before hitting the third to tie the score.
Gator guard Teddy Dupay missed a runner at the buzzer to force the extra five minutes of basketball.
From there, the Wildcats never held, or shared the lead again.
"They got a couple of quick baskets on us, and we were playing catch-up," Abegglen said.
Arceneaux set out immediately to repeat his stunning performance from two nights earlier. "The Show" scored Weber State's first six points but seemed to be forcing things a bit too much.
Florida, on the other hand, got a surprising eight quick points from center Greg Stolt to jump out to an early lead. The Gators led 13-6 after Major Parker hit a pair of free throws less than five minutes into the game.
The 'Cats, however, refused to fold.
With Arceneaux going off for 21 points before the halftime horn sounded, the Wildcats crept back into the game, took their first lead when Eddie Gill hit a 15-foot baseline jumper with 3:45 on the clock.
Florida quickly reclaimed that lead and led 35-32 on a Kenyon Weaks trey.
But Weber State scored the final eight points of the half to take a 40-35 lead heading into intermission.
"Harold may be one of the best players, if not the best player, I've seen this year," Donovan said. "He's flatout ridiculous. I understand why they call him 'The Show' because he is a joke; our whole defensive scheme was to stop him, double team him and trap him."
The Show was 8-of-12 from the field in the first half as he clearly had the Gators confused.
The fatigue factor began to set in during the second half as Weber State stopped moving without the ball and suffered from poor clock management.
WEBER NOTES: Weber State suddenly had a fan base in Durham, N.C. After the Wildcats beat the Tar Heels Thursday, a few Duke (and other ACC) fans called Weber State administrators in Seattle and placed an order for more than 200 Weber State T-shirts to wear when North Carolina comes to play next season.