GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The night could not have started better, so it seemed. The 12th-ranked Florida Gators hit their first six shots from the floor Tuesday, with all five starters scoring. The way they were sharing the basketball was exquisite.
The problem was when they started sharing it with Auburn. A lot.
UF turned the ball over 12 times in the first half against the Tigers and also surrendered eight offensive rebounds, falling behind by three at intermission, despite shooting better 62 percent from the floor.
By the time Coach Billy Donovan was through discussing his team's performance and effort with his players, paint was coming off the locker room walls.
“He was the only one talking,” said freshman guard Bradley Beal, who had four turnovers in the first 20 minutes. “And he was saying words I can't even say right now.”
The message?
“We sucked,” said Erving Walker, confirming the coach's chat did not qualify for a PG-13 rating. “No kids allowed.”
Just men who responded. The Gators came out after the break and promptly buried five 3-pointers to get some breathing room, then blew the game open with nine straight points to pull away for a 63-47 victory before 10,150 at the O'Connell Center.
Junior guard Kenny Boynton scored a game-high 20 points, making six of his nine 3-point shots, while Walker and Boynton threw in 13 more points each, as UF shot 53.5 percent for the game, including 11-for-21 from 3-point range (52.4 percent), turned the ball over just six times after halftime and held Auburn to a measly 17 points in the final 20 minutes.
“Our second half defense won the game,” Beal said. “That, and we took care of the ball.”
For Florida (22-6, 10-3), the win was its third straight and pulled the Gators within one victory of clinching a first-round bye in the Southeastern Conference Tournament. It may have come with a heavy price, however.
Forward/center Will Yeguete, the team's best front-court defender and rebounder, suffered a broken foot and is listed as out indefinitely, but according to Donovan, is expected to miss the rest of the season.
"It's a six-week injury. He's done," Donovan said."We're going to have to do some different things."
That process began immediately against the Tigers (14-13, 4-9), who led 30-27 -- with the slow-down pace very much to their half-court liking -- and trailed by just three points, 44-39, when Yeguete left the court. The next basket was a 3-pointer from UF backup guard Scottie Wilbekin, the second field goal of that nine-point run that opened a 12-point lead with just over six minutes to go.
Florida led 61-41 with under two minutes to go -- holding Auburn to just 11 points through the second half's first 18 minutes -- before the Tigers scored more than a third of their second-half points in those last couple minutes to finish with 17 out of the locker room on 33-percent shooting.
Apparently, Donovan got his message across. And it was a lot deeper than Walker's two-word version.
It was more about what is expected of a player who pulls a Florida jersey over his head; how it needed to mean as much to Walker, Boynton and the rest as it did when Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem and Joakim Noah wore it.
“Those guys gave their heart and soul to this program, and that's the way you're representing this program? With that focus? And beyond that what are families thinking right now?” Donovan said, recalling his conversation. “They have to understand that it means something when Florida' is across the jersey for me. We may not always play great, may not always make every shot, may not always play mistake-free, [and] that's part of the game. But you know what? We can do it with a focus, a passion and an energy that the people here watching us deserve to see, and people that have played here in the past deserve to see. That means something.”
It must have meant something to them in the second half.
The Gators just needed to be reminded.
Loudly and perhaps even a little profanely.
