NCAA tournament 2012: Florida tops Marquette in Sweet 16 PHOENIX - Seventh-seeded Florida tallied a 68-58 upset victory over third-seeded Marquette on Thursday night in the West Region semifinals. The Gators will face fourth-seeded Louisville on Saturday in the Elite Eight, a spot Florida has reached in four of its last five NCAA tournament appearances. Guard Bradley Beal led the Gators with a game-high 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting. While Florida shot 7 of 27 (25.9 percent) from three-point range, the Gators made up for it by persistently driving the ball into the paint and scoring from close range. If Marquette was going to climb back into contention in the second half, it was going to have to be through the grit of its defense. The Golden Eagles - who shot 30.8 percent on the night - scrambled for loose balls and collected eight steals. Marquette guard Todd Mayo stole the ball from Florida point guard Erving Walker near midcourt with 31 / 2 minutes to play and called a timeout as the two players tumbled to the floor near the Golden Eagles" bench. Buzz Williams, Marquette's excitable head coach, clapped rapidly and then slapped Mayo's rear three times as the rest of the team huddled around them. Mayo trimmed Florida's lead to six when he scored a three-pointer on Marquette's ensuing possession. But Marquette could not find lasting offensive rhythm. The Golden Eagles" defense kept Florida's lead from becoming bloated, but the team could not score consistently enough to cut their deficit to less than six after the opening minutes of the second half. With just more than 13 minutes to play in the second half, Florida forward Erik Murphy dribbled the ball on the wing. Even at 6 feet 10, Murphy has been one of the Gators" most reliable long-range shooting threats this season. But to that point on Thursday, Murphy had missed 4 of 5 three-point attempts, so instead he drove the ball into the lane and scored a layup to put Florida up by 14. "I thought they beat us straight up, from start to finish," Williams said. The scouting report on Florida has been partially inaccurate of late. Yes, the Gators still attempt a lot of three-pointers - more than any other team in the nation this season, in fact - but it's no longer true that Florida's chances for victory are solely dependent on whether all those long-range shots fall. The Gators knocked off 10th-seeded Virginia, 71-45, in the round of 64 despite making just 4 of 23 three-point attempts. To be clear, Florida hasn't lost the ability to knock down perimeter shots. The Gators buried 7 of 16 three-point attempts while building a 28-point first-half lead against Norfolk State in the round of 32. But with a recent emphasis placed on having its guards penetrate into the lane rather than always setting for long-range shots - an adjustment made with three games left in the regular season after the team lost sixth man Will Yeguete to a season-ending foot injury - Florida no longer lives and dies by the three-pointer. "Any time you get beat, it's a bailout when you say you just didn't make shots," Williams said. That isn't what happened. They were really good. They were outstanding.