The Gators' season and senior Walter Hodge's career came to an end Tuesday night.
Penn State (25-11) beat UF (25-11) 71-62 and eliminated the Gators from the National Invitation Tournament in the quarterfinal round.
Hodge scored 7 points in his final game at the O'Connell Center.
"I'm always going to remember this day. And these fans, I really appreciate what they did," Hodge said. "I think I had a great career."
Senior forward Jamelle Cornley, who did not play in Penn State's second-round win against Rhode Island, led the Nittany Lions with 23 points and 12 rebounds.
Cornley partially separated his left shoulder in Penn State's first-round victory against George Mason last week.
Stanley Pringle scored 15, and he and Cornley combined for more than half of the Nittany Lions' offense.
"I thought we were going to do it for Walt," sophomore guard Nick Calathes said.
"This is Walt's last home game, and he's been like a best friend to me, and I've known him for so long."
The two teams traded baskets for most of the first half.
But with just over four minutes to play, freshman guard Erving Walker knocked down his third 3-point basket of the first half and brought UF's lead to 7 points - the Gators' largest of the game up to that point.
Penn State rallied back, knocking down back-to-back threes and took a 33-32 lead into the locker room.
The Gators failed to score a basket in the final four minutes of the half.
Penn State jumped out to an early second-half lead, but UF managed to cut the deficit to a single point after two Calathes foul shots with just more than 12 minutes to play.
The Nittany Lions answered, going on an 8-0 run that saw Penn State take their biggest lead of the game.
Down 10 with 5:29 to play, UF went on a 9-1 run that brought the Gators to within 3 points with a little more than a minute to play.
Penn State stopped any hopes UF had of a comeback with back-to-back baskets and six foul shots in the game's final 60 seconds.
Walker led the Gators with 16 points, and center Alex Tyus finished with 15 points and eight rebounds.
With the season now over and the NBA within his reach, Calathes will have to make a decision about his future.
"I'm not really thinking about that right now," Calathes said. "But when it's time, I'll sit down with Coach and my family and decide from there."
Donovan said he was unsure about his all-conference point guard's future.
"I have no idea (about) any of those things. I think last year in New York someone asked me about Marreese (Speights), and I was being honest. I have no idea," Donovan said. "I'm supportive of Nick. Nick has always worked hard. He is a really, really good competitor. Certainly we would love to have him back here, and I would love to coach him again. But if that decision is in front of him, it's probably up to him and his family."
