“It was just of me taking good shots instead of thinking about my percentage,” Boynton said.
Boynton matched a
career-high with 28 points, leading the Gators to a 79-58 win over Yale
on Sunday afternoon before a half-Yale, half-Florida crowd of 2,532 at
the John J. Lee Amphitheater. No. 13 Florida (10-2) closed out its
non-conference schedule on a strong note, led by the record-setting day
from Boynton.
Boynton went
8-of-10 from 3-point range, passing former Gator sharpshooter Lee
Humphrey (288) for most 3-pointers in UF history. Boynton’s 289th career
3-pointer extended UF’s lead to 65-41 in the second half and his 290th
with 2:45 left put the Gators up 77-54.
Boynton said he
met Humphrey briefly during workouts last summer at the UF practice
facility. Humphrey was a key shooting cog in UF’s back-to-back national
title teams in 2006 and 2007. Humphrey still holds the record for most
3-pointers in NCAA Tournament history (55).
“It’s an honor,”
Boynton said. “He was a great shooter. He has two national championships
under his belt, so he’s a winner. That’s something I would still like
to accomplish before my career is over.”
Boynton had
showed signs of breaking out of his slump by going 3-of-7 from 3-point
range against Air Force. Before that, Boynton went through a stretch of
making just 4 of 32 3-point attempts.
On Friday,
Florida coach Billy Donovan talked about Boynton needing to mix up his
game more in an effort to keep opposing defenses guessing. Boynton’s
first two shot attempts were drives to the basket. He made just one
3-pointer in the first half before catching fire in the last 20 minutes.
Boynton hit
back-to-back 3-pointers during a 12-0 run in the second half that
extended UF’s lead to 47-23. From there, Boynton made his next four
3-point attempts to break Humphrey’s record.
“He created space
for himself, and what happened was he was able to get into a rhythm
shooting the basketball,” Donovan said. “The ball had a lot more arc
than it did in previous games.”
While Boynton
showed signs of life, it was a disappointing afternoon for another UF
senior. Forward Erik Murphy sat out the game with bruised ribs he
suffered Friday in practice. Murphy will have X-Rays on Monday to see if
the ribs are broken.
Donovan said
Murphy won’t practice on Monday or Tuesday and is doubtful for
Wednesday’s Southeastern Conference opener against Georgia. The Yale
game was supposed to be a homecoming game for Murphy, whose hometown of
South Kingstown, R.I., is 84.5 miles from Yale’s campus.
“I played with
broken ribs as a junior and it’s tough because it’s hard to breath, you
don’t sleep well, it’s hard to reach and stretch,” Donovan said. “Erik
was feeling a little better and he tried to work out in the shootaround
on Sunday and within 10 to 15 minutes he was feeling miserable.”
With Murphy out, junior forward Will Yeguete stepped into the starting lineup and provided a lift with 14 points and 9 rebounds.
“We feel like we
have 7 or 8 different guys on this team who can start,” Yeguete said. “I
just tried to play as hard as I could.”
Said Donovan: “Will was back to himself again. He was able to get all of 14 points around the rim. He was active for us.”
Florida’s press
flustered Yale throughout the game. The Gators scored 19 points off 16
Yale turnovers. Mike Rosario, playing about 80 miles from his hometown
of Jersey City, N.J., had 13 points and 3 of UF’s 10 steals.
All in all, it
was a good final tuneup for the Gators heading into SEC play. Florida
junior point guard Scottie Wilbekin had a career-high 10 assists,
spreading the wealth throughout UF’s offense. Defensively, UF held an
opponent under 60 points for the first time since beating Southeastern
Louisiana, 82-43, on Dec. 19.
Yale at one point
trailed just 26-23, but the Gators ended the first half on a 9-0 run
and started the second half on a 12-0 run to break the game open.
