GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Statistically, they're the deadliest three-point shooting team in the Southeastern Conference and one of the best at bombing the long ball in the country.
The Florida Gators, though, have struggled from the arc since SEC play commenced four games ago and did again Saturday at the O'Connell. For the third time in those four conference outings, only one of every three three-pointers found the mark in UF's 76-64 victory over LSU before a crowd of 12,198.
For now, the 17th-ranked Gators (15-4, 3-1 SEC) will embrace the positives of beating a third straight SEC foe -- and winning a 16th straight home game -- without their best stuff from long distance.
“We can do a lot of different things,” junior forward Erik Murphy said after leading five UF players into double-figures with 15 points. “We have a lot of options on a nightly basis. If someone is off, someone else will fill in. Everybody on our team can score.”
Against the Tigers (12-7, 2-3), it was Murphy hitting six of his seven field-goal attempts and going 3-for-4 from the arc. Senior point guard Erving Walker threw in 12 points and backcourt mates Kenny Boynton, Bradley Beal and reserve Mark Rosario each had 11 points. Patric Young, hampered the last two weeks with an ankle sprain came off the bench to score eight (hitting all three field-goal tries) and grabbing eight rebounds.
But Boynton and Walker, averaging a combined six treys per game this season, were a collective 1-for-10 from 3-point range and the Gators were just 7-for-21. Boynton had a streak of 34 straight games with at least one three-pointer halted.
Inside the 3-point line, however, Florida was 20-for-27.
“We were pretty efficient,” UF coach Billy Donovan said. “I thought we had pretty good looks from 3-point line, but didn't shoot the ball well as we have in the past.”
That didn't stop the Gators from hitting a season-high 56.3 percent for the game, despite just 11 assists on 27 field goals.
“The way they were playing defense, maybe it was hard to get the actual assist,” said Walker, who moved into seventh place on UF's career scoring list (passing Eugene McDowell, Matt Bonner and Gene Shy) with 1,575 points. “But we got dribble-drive situations where the floor was open and a guy could go to the basket.”
They also got transition opportunities, courtesy of some feisty full-court pressure that forced LSU into 10 first-half turnovers.
“Our defense led to most of our points in the first half,” Beal said.
The Tigers took an early six-point lead and actually hit eight of their first 16 shots, but only six of their next 23, as the Gators -- scoring the last seven points of the first half -- built a lead that swelled to as many as 16 in the second half before Tigers 7-foot, 260-pound center Justin Hamilton (13-for-22 from the floor, to go with eight rebounds) scored 18 of his game-high 27 points after intermission to help cut the UF lead to eight.
“We lived with him obviously having a huge night,” Donovan said.
What they didn't want to live with was collapsing on Hamilton, forcing him to pass out of double-teams and running the risk of the Tigers clawing back into the game with three-point shots.
As it turned out, Hamilton made 60 percent of his field-goal tries to his teammates' 36 percent.
“We competed and we had some shots that didn't go down for us in the second half,” LSU coach Trent Johnson said. “We have to tip a hat to them. They're explosive, they're skilled and the guy who's running the show is probably one of the best coaches in the country.”
That guy certainly wants to see this offensively gifted team shoot better than the 37.5 percent (33 of 88) the Gators are hitting from 3-point range against SEC foes. But that guy also is starting to see more and more to like from this team as it starts to come together.
“We still have 12 games to go [in SEC play],” Donovan said. “I think we're getting better understanding of playing with each other.”
