Florida Gators
vs. Vanderbilt (SEC Tournament)
Gators Storm Back to Beat Vanderbilt, Advance to SEC Title Game on Sunday vs. Kentucky
Saturday, March 12, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Scott Carter
They left for Atlanta and the SEC Tournament on Thursday with a very specific goal in mind.
The Gators wanted to win three games. They wanted to win their first SEC Tournament title in four years. They wanted to climb a ladder holding scissors in their hands.
They now have their shot. Before the Gators return home Sunday evening, they have an opportunity to cut down nets for the first time since suiting up in orange and blue.
The wait has been longest for seniors Chandler Parsons, Vernon Macklin and Alex Tyus.
On Saturday it was two of their younger teammates who made sure the veteran frontcourt got that chance to snip away.
Florida advanced to Sunday's SEC title game with an impressive second-half performance against Vanderbilt. The Gators fell behind by 12 shortly after halftime, but the guard combo of junior Erving Walker and sophomore Kenny Boynton shot the Gators past the Commodores 77-66 on Saturday afternoon at the Georgia Dome.
Walker and Boynton were so good after halftime that they outscored the Commodores, 33-30, by themselves in the second half. Walker scored all 17 of his points in the final 20 minutes, and Boynton scored 16 of his game-high 24 points after the break.
With the game still in doubt, Boynton and Walker were at their best.
During one stretch, Boynton hit a pair of three-pointers and a reverse lay-in, and Walker hit a three-pointer from the corner to put the Gators up 68-61.
Vanderbilt never recovered as the two guards celebrated their outburst with a chest-bump.
Boynton went 5-for-9 from three-point range to help the Gators hit a season-high 11 three-pointers.
"When Boynton's doing what he's doing defensively at the other end of the floor and he's working the way he's working, I'm going let him take a couple, because he can get going,'' Gators coach Billy Donovan said. "And he made two or three in a row there, and the fourth one he took was not a good shot. But you're going to live with it because you know that he's doing a heck of a job at the other end of the floor defensively."
While Boynton showed what he is capable of on Saturday, so did the Gators (26-6). For the second consecutive game, Florida trailed at the half. And for the second consecutive game, they ran away after halftime.
Less than 24 hours after scoring 56 points in the second half against Tennessee, the Gators put up 49 after the break on Saturday.
Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings warned his team at halftime what the Gators did to Tennessee. Still, the Commodores (23-10) had no answer once the shots started falling for Boynton and Walker.
"They got hot in the second half and made some tough ones,'' Stallings said. "That's what they do. And that's what they have done all season long, and that's why they're the league champion.
"They just got going and got to feeling it and we couldn't get them shut off.''
Vanderbilt led 40-28 after a pair of free throws from Festus Ezeli with 18:50 left in the game.
The Gators started chipping away, ignited by a Walker's first points, a three-pointer that trimmed Vanderbilt's lead to 40-31.
In the eight minutes after Ezeli's free throws, the Gators went on a 23-10 run to take their first lead, 51-50, on a lay-up by Chandler Parsons. The lead traded hands from there until Boynton and Walker scored 11 consecutive points to turn a 57-57 tie into a seven-point Florida lead.
Some of their shots came from well behind the three-point line, but that's what was working on Saturday.
"We love that, to take those shots,'' Boynton said. "But I think that [Coach] gives us the freedom to take those shots because he knows that we can make them and go on runs.''
The Gators will likely need more of those types of shots on Sunday to beat Kentucky and capture the fourth SEC Tournament title in school history. The Gators won three in a row from 2005-07 but haven't been back to the title game since.
The Wildcats are going for their 27th SEC Tournament title. The teams split two regular-season games, with UF winning 70-68 in Gainesville on Feb. 5 and the Wildcats winning 76-68 in Lexington on Feb. 26.
The Gators trailed by eight at halftime in part due to 11 turnovers. In the second half, they committed only two turnovers while forcing the Commodores to commit 12.
Stallings, whose team lost three times to the Gators this season, sees a veteran team peaking at the right time. He said Sunday's title game should be a good one.
"I think it will be a great game,'' he said. "It will be very well representative of our league and two of the best, if not the two best teams, in our league.''
Donovan liked the way his team has battled back in both games in the SEC Tournament. He would prefer not to fall behind against the talented Wildcats, who beat Alabama on Saturday.
But the chance to finally cut down nets with this group is something he is looking forward to.
"We're excited about the opportunity to win and excited about the opportunity to play [Kentucky],'' he said.
