By Chris Harry
GatorZone Contributing Writer
TAMPA, Fla. -- Their four leading scorers were guards.
No question, the Gators believe this small ball thing can work, and actually needed their four-guard set to do some good out of necessity Monday night after power forward Patric Young took a paw to the eye and left the game late in the first half against Wright State.
With Young on the bench for all but nine minutes of the second half, the backcourt quartet of Kenny Boynton, Bradley Beal, Mike Rosario and Erving Walker accounted for all eight of Florida's field goals after halftime, as the Gators kept the Raiders mostly at double-figure bay and left the St. Pete Times Forum with a 78-65 victory before a crowd of 6,331.
Boynton and Beal totaled 22 points each, with the former the hotter of the two. Boynton was 7-for-11 from the floor, including 6-of-9 from the 3-point arc. Beal, just 1-of-5 from deep, showed some nice flashes driving to the basket and getting to the free line, where he made nine of 11 and helped the Gators (3-1) close out the Raiders (2-2) down the stretch.
Rosario threw in 11 points and Erving had nine to go with seven assists. UF guards totaled 64 points, compared to 14 from a front court that took just 13 shots.
“We're going to give some teams some problems,” Beal said of the guard-heavy rotation. “But there will be problems on both ends, too.”
Especially if Young isn't on the floor, which fortunately for Florida ended up being a brief problem. When Young did return, his right eye was swollen and bloodshot. He made just one of his seven field-goal tries, finishing with five points and seven rebounds.
“We didn't think it was anything too significant,” Gators coach Billy Donovan said of eye injury. “It was more just blurred vision.”
So the Gators pressed on trying to clear up what they want to do on offense. The guards, not surprisingly, like the four-guard set.
“Definitely,” said Boynton, who is off to a torrid shooting start (15-of-30 on 3s) to the season. “In the second half, we stopped pressing and actually just ran our half-court man-to-man. With that lineup, we can pressure and create a lot of turnovers.”
Wright State coach Billy Donlon didn't particularly like facing four guards.
“I think it beat us late,” Donlon said.
UF built a 16-point second-half cushion that Wright State whittled with an 7-0 run to cut the score to 50-41 with just over 14 minutes to go. Boynton bombed a 3-pointer to stop the Florida bleeding and after Beal sank one of two free throws Boynton flushed a dunk in transition on a nice feed from Walker.
The Raiders, out of the Horizon League made famous the last two years by Butler, again got the margin down to nine, 66-57 with five minutes left, while the Gators were going four minutes without a field goal. Again, it was Boynton to the rescue with a driving layup to make things more comfortable, with Walker adding another less than a minute later for a 12-point edge with just under two minutes remaining.
“I can't sit here and tell you there was one thing I was really, really pleased with from start to finish. i thought we were OK,” Donovan said. “If there was one thing I can say I can maintain a level of pleasure with ... I really think they're trying to move the basketball.”
That movement figures to look better with four guards on the floor. UF fans can certainly expect to see more of it when the Gators return to the O'Connell Center Friday night against Jacksonville, another mid-major -- and one that beat the Gators in overtime last season.
“The one thing that was encouraging when we played four guards, we out-rebounded them by 14, but what's going to happen when we play four guards against Alabama and JaMychal Green and Tony Mitchell,” Donovan asked. “Or when we play Kentucky? Or when we play Vanderbilt and Festus Ezeli? Can we really do that?”
In time, we'll all find out.
