By Chris Harry
GatorZone Contributing Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- There's a lesson wrapped in there somewhere. Maybe Florida's two best scorers learned something along the way. Maybe it'll sink in when they review the tape.
The best thing to be said about the 12th-ranked Gators and their cockeyed-shooting backcourt Wednesday was they persevered against one of the sleekest and most athletic teams in the country, eventually coming away with a 78-72 overtime victory against the Arizona Wildcats that was as inexplicable as it was exhilarating.
Patric Young had his finest game as a Gator, scoring a career-high 25 points and clearing 10 rebounds, but it was the awakening of senior point guard Erving Walker, junior shooting guard Kenny Boynton and the Florida defense down the stretch that turned the game and jolted the O'Connell Center crowd of 10,531 when the home team needed it most.
“This answers a lot of questions about our team -- like when guys are having bad nights, are they still helping the team?” Young said. “Kenny was struggling offensively shooting, and Erv [too], but those guys really picked it up defensively in the end.''
Walker and Boynton combined to tally 11 of UF's final 13 points in regulation, then nine of 12 in overtime. In between, the Gators (6-2) had to withstand a controversial three-shot foul with five seconds left that allowed Solomon Hill to hit a trio of pressure-packed free throws and send the game into overtime and UF's players to the bench feeling they'd let a great opportunity slip away.
“I think our guys probably could have come to the huddle, disappointed and disenchanted the game is going to overtime. ... I know I was pretty annoyed going to overtime,” UF coach Billy Donovan said. “But they battled and fought and found a way to win the game. I don't believe it was one of our better games. i don't believe we played very intelligently.”
Just timely, as it turned out.
The opening basket of the extra period was a driving layup by Walker, and the Gators never trailed in the extra session.
“We have to embrace this one,” freshman guard Bradley Beal said. “We really needed a win like this one.”
How they got it will be something both teams will be wondering the next few days.
Boynton (averaging 19 points per game) and Walker (14.1) started the game by combining to hit one of their first 15 shots on the way to making just two of 15 three-pointers for the night. If that wasn't ugly enough -- get this -- the Gators (6-2) hit just two of their first 14 free throws.
That bears repeating: The 12th-ranked team in the nation started 2-for-14 from the free throw line (14.2 percent).
“I've never in my life seen 2-for-14 from the free throw line,” Donovan said in a tone that combined both amazement and frustration. “I could go out right now and make two-for-14 left-handed. ... I mean, two-of-14? Everyone in this room could make two-of-14!”
And yet, Donovan seemed even more irked with how Walker (3-for-16 from the floor, 1-for-9 from the arc) and Boynton (2-of-11 and 1-of-6) kept firing away when everything the Gators needed was waiting in the 6-foot-9, 247-pound frame of Young, who frequently was matched against 6-6 and 6-7 guards in the halfcourt and had his way all night on the block and in the paint.
“He had 25 points,” Donovan said. “He should have had 45.”
The UF coach certainly was proud of the way his players fought through the adversity, especially that deflating foul call 21 feet from the basket that allowed Hill tie the game after the Gators had expended so much energy fighting back and taking the lead with some stellar defense.
As Donovan saw it, things never should've come to that. Specifically, he said, Boynton and Walker should have recognized it wasn't their night offensively, but rather a game that should have gone through Young.
“[They] tried to take over the game and didn't try to take it over in the right fashion,” Donovan said. “Erving Walker should have tried to take it over with his passing. ... And I think Kenny had a tough game in some aspects. His first shot of the game was blocked. You got to kind of let the game happen and come to you and just play what the defense is doing to you.”
The Wildcats (6-3) were letting Young get his and daring the Gators to shoot their crooked shots. Eventually, Walker and Boynton found some rhythm, but it was every bit the energy Young and forward Will Yeguete (8 points, 7 rebounds) put forth that kick-started the late rally.
“Get stops,” Beal said. “The ball wasn't falling, so we just had to get stops on defense.”
That was Donovan's message.
“He just told us to keep playing,” Walker said.
Play they did and eventually even those pesky free throws -- did we mention the Gators started 2-for-14? -- began to fall. UF hit 12 of 16 inside the final three minutes of regulation and overtime.
“We feel like we got away with one,” Walker said. “Coach D said we played a great game, that we were resilient and he was proud of us. He said there are going to be nights when the ball doesn't go in the hole, but you still have to defend and rebound and win games.”
The Gators won this one.
Maybe tomorrow, they'll figure out how.
