GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Not just two games in 45 hours, but two Southeastern Conference clashes against a pair of the most physical teams in the league. That was the daunting test the Florida Gators faced starting Thursday night.
And the one they passed impressively Saturday afternoon.
Freshman guard Bradley Beal scored 19 points, junior forward Erik Murphy added 14 and sophomore center Patric Young came off the bench to score 12 points and grab six rebounds, as 14th-ranked UF ran away from No. 18 Mississippi State in the second half with a 69-57 victory before 12,045 at the O'Connell Center.
Make that five straight wins and seven of the last eight for the Gators (17-4, 5-1), who two nights earlier handed Ole Miss its first home defeat of the season by erasing a 16-point deficit on the road. Also make it back-to-back defeats of opponents who started the week with Top 40 RPI ratings.
Those two wins will look impressive down the line to the folks gathering NCAA resumes, but for now Florida coach Billy Donovan, whose team moved into a tie with Vanderbilt for second place in the SEC standings, likes what he sees from a group of players that is growing more and more unselfish as they figure out their roles. Roles that can change from one game to the next.
“I thought all of us, collectively, did a lot of different things to affect the outcome of the game,” Donovan said.
That included junior guard Kenny Boynton, the SEC's No. 2 scorer who finished with a season-low two points on 1-for-6 shooting and three misses from 3-point range. Boynton, though, scored plenty of brownie points on the defensive end, in teaming with backup Scottie Wilbekin to make MSU's talented point guard Dee Bost work exhaustively during his 39 frantic minutes trying to executive the Bulldogs offense.
Last Saturday, Bost had 24 points on 8-for-14 shooting in his team's upset win at Vandy.
He got seven shots off Saturday.
“Kenny was great on defense,” Murphy said of Boynton, who came in averaging 18 points a game. “On this team, you don't have to score to make an impact. We have plenty of weapons.”
When in sync, they are lethal. Not only were the Gators efficient on offense (48.2 percent shooting for the game, including 55.6 after halftime), but their 15 assists dwarfed just five turnovers. The key ball-handlers, point guard Erving Walker and Boynton, combined for nine assists and no turnovers.
Mississippi State (17-5, 4-3) had 10 assists and 14 turnovers, five of them charges drawn by UF defenders.
“Let's give Florida some credit,” MSU coach Rick Stansbury said. “They had a lot to do with us not being at our best.”
Stansbury had especially strong praise for Murphy, the 6-foot-10 nightmare matchup problem whose 4-for-7 sharp-shooting from 3-point range forced the Bulldogs to extend their defense, thus opening alleys for the Gators to exploit.
“This time last year, he was no factor,” Stansbury said. “This year? Shoot, he's the one guy that changes their team -- totally! He gives them some length defensively. And offensively, he's so skilled. Stretches you out. All he does is make it easier for all those perimeter guys driving the basketball.”
Like Beal, who made six of his nine shots, including 3-for-4 from long range. His 3-pointer triggered an 11-0 run in the second half when the Gators swelled a four-point lead to 15 with just over three minutes remaining.
And then there was Young, who came off the bench for his fourth straight game since spraining an ankle more than two weeks ago. Young scored just two points in the first half, but made his presence felt with five field goals on six attempts (three of them dunks, after slamming down five at Ole Miss) in 24 minutes.
“People say that we're a guard-oriented team. I think our team is balanced,” Young said. “Whatever you take away, we're hopefully going to find something.”
It took some searching, as the Bulldogs hung close well after halftime. The game was tied at 32 three minutes after intermission, but it was apparent that SEC Player of the Year candidate Arnett Moultrie, who came in averaging 17 points and a league-best 11 rebounds, wasn't going to have his way against defensive specialist Will Yeguete (7 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 charges) and the UF defense.
Moultrie, hitting 56 percent from the floor, finished with just 12 points on 4-for-10 from the floor, but did have 13 rebounds. He, along with Bost and guard Rodney Hood each were averaging more than 34 minutes per game and the Gators made them pay for being on the court that long against their press and traps.
UF led 51-47 when Beal nailed a three. Yeguete hit a layup off an inbound from Wilbekin, Young scored consecutive buckets (one in transition, one on a slam off a feed from Wilbekin) and Beal finished off the run with fast-break that broke the game open.
“We're just trying to get our guys to understand that every game presents a new set of challenges for us and you've got to kind of take what the defense gets you,” Donovan said. “This is the time of year that you can really share in the next guy's success.”
They seem to understand that better with each game.
The Gators are looking awfully successful right now.
