GAINESVILLE,
Fla. -- The Florida Gators scored the game’s first seven points, led by as many
25 and surrendered the fewest points of any game this season in Tuesday night’s
wire-to-wire 70-48 trampling of Georgia before 10,506 at the O’Connell
Center.
Defense
certainly set the tone, along with freshman guard Bradley Beal’s double-double
of 17 points and 10 rebounds, but Coach Billy Donovan didn’t do a lot of
gushing over his team’s guarding, despite the Bulldogs starting 0-for-6 from
the floor and hitting just one of their first nine shots.
Quite
the contrary, actually.
“Coach
wasn’t too happy with some of the things we were doing on defense,” Beal said.
“He got pretty mad at us during timeouts.”
Donovan
and his staff didn’t like seeing that huge lead nearly cut in half with seven
minutes to go, but coaches never like to be happy about everything. A stretch
where UF surrendered some offensive rebounds and a few 3-point shots may have
irritated Donovan, but the overall tone of the team’s 15th straight home win
was a good one, especially given the mess of three days at Tennessee.
“We did
a pretty good job defensively. Our effort was there for most of the
game,” Donovan said after slapping a 36-percent effort (20-for-55) on the
Bulldogs. “This was the one game I was disappointed in our rebounding,
especially in the second half.”
Maybe
so, but by the time that six- or seven-minute lapse arrived, the Gators (13-4)
had built such a fat lead by virtue of their first-half defense and shooting,
the Bulldogs (9-7, 0-2) needed a sustained flurry to make a miraculous
comeback. Wasn't going to happen.
Beal’s
third career double-double followed a poor performance in Knoxville from the
gifted freshman, a display that pretty much mirrored his teammates' overall
poor play. All four of his field goals came from 3-point range to go with
5-for-6 from the free-throw line.
“It felt
good,” he said. “I figured it was going to come around sooner or later, so I
didn’t get too involved with it. I just played my game and let the game come to
me.”
Same
with junior guard Kenny Boynton, who was his steady self with 17 points on
5-for-9 shooting and all five attempts from the free-throw line. Patric Young
added eight points and 10 rebounds.
“Seems
like we play with more energy and more together at home,” Boynton said. “If we
play this same game at South Carolina, I think we’ll come out with a win also.”
That’s
where UF goes next, which means Columbia is where the Gators will try to break
out of their 0-for-4 slump on the road this season. Boynton and his buddies
would do themselves a favor by taking the defensive intensity that showed up --
at least for most of the game -- against the Dawgs.
With
just over three minutes to play in the first half, a Beal 3-pointer gave the
Gators a 20-point lead -- and Georgia had just 13 points. The Bulldogs scored
eight of the final 10 points before intermission, but still trailed 35-21 at
the break.
“We gave
up a lot of easy baskets early,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said.
And they
didn’t get any on their end. At least not until the Dawgs enjoyed an 18-6
flurry deep into the second half -- Georgia had 11 offensive rebounds and went
4-for-10 from the arc after the break -- only to be beaten back by a Boynton
3-pointer, followed by a trio of Scottie Wilbekin free throws that kicked in a
10-0 UF run that reinstated the rout.
Afterward,
though, the Gators echoed their coach’s talking points.
“Honestly,
we could have played even better,” Young said of the defense. “I didn’t realize
they only had 48 points, because we had a lot of breakdowns. ... I feel like we
should have held them under 30.”
That
statement drew some chuckles.
“I’m
just saying,” Young continued. “Take away the offensive rebounds and the open
threes and the second-chance points and it’s a completely different game. We
have more points if we rebound the ball and get out in transition -- and we’re
a scary team in transition.”
The
Gators didn’t have a lot of transition opportunities against the Dawgs (as the
season-low eight assists suggests), but they need to figure out how to get that
frightening fastbreak to show up on the road; along with everything else they
do so well.
This
weekend at South Carolina would be a good start.
“We’ve
got to have a level of understanding and commitment and focus of playing on the
road,” Donovan said. “How do you flip that switch and take that on the road?
That’s a challenge and something we have to take with us to Columbia.”
