Instant Replay: Florida 45, Auburn 40
Friday, January 21, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Track and Field, Scott Carter
ESPN announcer Rece Davis may have said it best when he called the Gators' 45-40 win at Auburn on Thursday night “The Great Escape.”
Shortly after the players dressed and boarded the team bus, their tweets started showing up with similar sentiments.
“That was ugly, but a great win on the road,'' Chandler Parsons tweeted. “Way to grind it out on defense!”
Erik Murphy tweeted “a win is a win.” Freshman guard Scottie Wilbekin, who had a key rebound and heads up play at the end of the game, tweeted: “We got the win … that's all that matters.''
It wasn't pretty. It wasn't the kind of win that Gators coach Billy Donovan will add to his best-hits collection, but like the players tweeted, it was a win and one that boosted the Gators (14-4, 3-1 SEC) back into a tie with South Carolina atop the SEC East standings.
Here is a quick look at the game:
How the game was won: The Gators were 3-for-24 from three-point range when Kenny Boynton let one fly and Florida trailing 40-37 with less than two minutes left. Boynton's shot tied the game 40-40 with 1:50 left, and 39 seconds later, Boynton's backcourt mate, Erving Walker, put the Gators ahead for good 43-40 with a three-pointer.
Turning point: The Gators were on the brink of a deflating loss to the SEC's only team with an overall losing record when Boynton pulled up several feet behind the three-point line and fired off the game-tying shot. On Auburn's next possession, Walker came up with a steal and then hit the go-ahead 3.
Player of the game: It's not often that the player of the game goes to a guy who finishes 3 of 15 from the floor, but Walker earns the nod. He was the only Gator to finish in double figures with 12 points, and he added five rebounds and two assists. But his biggest contribution was the go-ahead three-pointer and two free throws to seal the win with 4.6 seconds left.
Stat of the game: The rims at the new Auburn Arena were not very friendly to either team Thursday. The teams combined to shoot 32.6 percent (33 of 101). Florida finished 15 of 53 (28.3 percent) while the host Tigers shot 37.5 percent (18 of 48).
Heads-up play: Wilbekin finished with a modest stat line (5 points, 4 rebounds, 1 steal), but he made a smart play in the final seconds when he grabbed his only offensive rebound off a miss by Earnest Ross and immediately got the ball in Walker's hands. Walker is the team's best clutch free-throw shooter, and despite missing a key free throw in Saturday's home loss to South Carolina, Walker calmly nailed two free throws for the game's final points.
What it means: The Gators improved to 14-4 overall and 3-1 in the SEC, moving back into a first-place tie with South Carolina atop the SEC East. They won't get any style points for the win, but they overcame their worst offensive performance under Billy Donovan – the Gators' previous low point total with Donovan at the helm was 46 in a NCAA Tournament loss to Michigan State in 2003 – to improve to 2-0 on the road in SEC play. The Gators also surrendered just 16 points in the second half, playing the kind of defense they played earlier in the season.
Notes: The Gators have now won 13 of 14 games against Auburn … Florida has won its first two SEC road games for the first time since the 2006-07 season … Freshman C Patric Young made his second career start, filling in for a sick Vernon Macklin; Macklin came off the bench to score six points and six rebounds … Sophomore F Erik Murphy played for the first time since New Year's Eve at Xavier; Murphy had three rebound in six minutes.
