GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Florida men’s basketball team improved its record to 9-3 with a 66-55 triumph over Radford University at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Wednesday night.
The Gators were paced by junior point guard Erving Walker (Brooklyn, N.Y.) who scored 20 points—including five triples which matched his career-high—and also tallied three assists and two steals. His backcourt partner, sophomore Kenny Boynton (Pompano Beach, Fla.), was the other Gator in double figures with 11 points while chipping in four assists. Florida made nine threes, equaling its season-high, with eight of them coming from Walker and Boynton. Florida also collected 19 offensive rebounds that were converted into 19 second chance points while the defense forced 24 turnovers that led to 19 points.
Florida’s defense was stifling at the outset, holding Radford without a field goal until the 12:25 mark of the first half which allowed the Gators to race to a 15-3 lead just more than eight minutes into the contest. Seven different Gators scored in the first half and that balanced attack carried the Orange and Blue into intermission with a 31-24 advantage.
After a Radford lay-up trimmed the Gator lead to five in the opening seconds of the second half, a flurry of dunks highlighted a 9-0 surge that pushed the Florida edge to 17 with 14:43 remaining. Freshman forward Will Yeguete (Bourdeaux, France) began the run with a dunk off of his own offensive rebound. Senior center Vernon Macklin (Portsmouth, Va.) followed with a lay-up from a Scottie Wilbekin (Gainesville, Fla.) feed three possessions later. After a media timeout, Wilbekin found senior forward Chandler Parsons (Casselberry, Fla.) on an alley-oop and Macklin capped the burst with an ‘and-one’ after corralling a missed three-pointer by Wilbekin.
The Highlanders cut the deficit to nine with 1:02 remaining but an Alex Tyus (St. Louis, Mo.) rejection followed by two free throws by Parsons sealed the victory for Florida.
Johnathan Edwards led Radford with 15 points and nine rebounds, narrowly missing a double-double.
Next up for Florida will be Fairfield Stags on Tuesday, Dec. 28 at 7 p.m. at the O’Connell Center. The game can be seen on ESPNU.
