COLUMBIA, S.C. -- His team went into the locker room at
halftime trailing by one point against an offensively challenged opponent
picked to finish near the bottom of the Southeastern Conference and having surrendered
better than 60-percent shooting to a team barely averaging 60 points per game.
So what do you think Florida coach Billy Donovan told his players?
And how loudly and colorfully?
“He told us it was the best half we’d played all season,” junior guard Kenny
Boynton said.
That was because the Gators were active, focused, playing hard and executing,
while South Carolina was putting together what likely was its best 20 minutes
of basketball this season. The Gamecocks, though, didn’t have 20 more in them.
Florida did.
Six players scored in double-figures, including all five starters, and the 19th-ranked
Gators put away the Gamecocks with an early second-half burst en route to a
79-65 victory before 11,308 at Colonial Life Arena that marked UF’s first road
win in five tries this season.
Boynton led the Gators (14-4, 2-1) with 15 points, but sophomore Will Yeguete,
starting in place of Patric Young (sprained ankle, tendinitis), scored a
career-high 14 on 6-for-6 shooting to go with a game-high eight rebounds.
Senior point guard Erving Walker had 11 points and seven assists, leading an
offense that shot 53.2 percent for the game -- including 12-for-24 from 3-point
range -- and assisted on 19 of 25 field goals.
“I thought we shared the ball well,” Donovan said. “I thought we made good
decisions.”
And the good defense they played in the first half eventually was rewarded on
the statistic sheet.
Down 41-40, UF opened the second half by extending its defense and putting some
more pressure on USC point guard Bruce Ellington (17 points, 3 assists) and the
game turned almost immediately.
The Gators blitzed the Gamecocks (8-9, 0-3) with a 19-3 run to start the
period, with Yeguete scoring 15 seconds in on a jump hook to give UF a quick
lead it never relinquished. Before the home crowd barely blinked, Boynton
bombed a three, Bradley Beal (14 points) bombed two more and guard Mike Rosario
(10 points) made a steal and coast-to-coast slam dunk.
Just like that, Florida led 59-44.
South Carolina, meanwhile, was missing 12 of its first 13 shots and was on the
way to scoring just 10 points the first 15 minutes out of the locker
room.
“Obviously, 41 points in the first half is tremendous for us,” USC coach Darin
Horn said. “We have to find a way to continue to do that -- maybe not 41 points
-- but find a way to score and get some stops.”
The Gamecocks were 4-for-21 in the second half before making four of their last
nine shots in the final two minutes after falling behind by as many as 17.
“In the first half, they made all those shots,” Donovan said. “In the second
half, they didn’t make them.”
Which was why the coach didn’t feel the need to go off on his players at the
break.
As it stood, the Gators played most of the game without Young, the 6-foot-9 center
and leading rebounder who was ruled out of the starting lineup after hobbling
through the team’s shoot-around earlier in the day. Young managed to play 13
minutes -- had two monster dunks for his only points, also -- and probably
would have played more were it now for two early fouls, but Yeguete was
terrific in his place.
“I did what I usually do. I did not change anything,” said Yeguete, who stepped
in earlier this season to start three games when forward Erik Murphy was out
with a knee injury. “Pat is a pretty big key to our team. The whole team had to
step up, not only me.”
Six guys in double figures and holding an SEC opponent to 25.8 shooting
(8-for-31) on the road in the second -- remember, the Gamecocks fired 62.5
percent in the first half -- would qualify as stepping up.
“You show a lot about your team when you play in someone else’s house,” said
Rosario, who had a second straight solid game, going 3-for-6 from the floor
with a couple 3-pointers in 19 minutes off the bench. “Collectively, we have to
stay together as one. We did a good job of that tonight.”
No more questions about winning on the road for while.
“We were tired of hearing [it],” Boynton said of the winless road run. “It’s a
new season. It’s the SEC season, and we’re 1-1 on the road. We have to keep it
going.”
