Alex Brandon / AP

Florida's Corey Brewer, right, shoots against Jackson State's Grant Maxey during the Gators' 112-69 victory Friday.

Green and Humphrey were a combined 0-for-10 from the floor in the first 20 minutes. They missed nine 3-pointers, most of them wide open.

The big men picked up the slack — not surprising since Jackson State’s tallest starter was 3 inches shorter than Horford and 4 inches shorter than Noah.

Florida finished the half with a 34-14 rebounding advantage, but still only had a 41-35 lead.

Jackson State used a full-court press to force the Gators into 10 turnovers and some ill-advised shots. Florida settled down after the break and made the press moot by making just about everything.

“To think that you’re going to walk into this tournament and beat people with ease is just not going to happen,” Donovan said. “Probably playing that last game of the second day, sitting around watching games all day when they’re in their hotel room ... there probably was a little bit of excitement and enthusiasm and maybe they got a little bit ahead of themselves. But I think if you look at every single game, every game is a battle and there’s some form of adversity that you’ve got to overcome.”

Not surprisingly, Florida overcame it thanks mostly to Humphrey. The soft-spoken country boy from Tennessee did the same thing in the tournament last season and finished the six games 22-of-48 from behind the arc.

He made 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to start the second half in the semifinal game against George Mason, and did the same thing in the championship game against UCLA.

He turned double-digit leads into routs. He pretty much did the same thing Friday, helping Florida extend the record of top seeds to 92-0 in the first round since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

“The first half, we didn’t shoot the ball well,” Brewer said. “In the second half, we were knocking them.”

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