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Thursday, March 28, 2024
<p>Dorian Finney-Smith (right) defends USC’s Sindarius Thornwell (middle) during Florida’s’ 74-58 win on Jan. 8 in the O’Connell Center. Finney-Smith led UF in points in its win against Arkansas on Saturday.</p>

Dorian Finney-Smith (right) defends USC’s Sindarius Thornwell (middle) during Florida’s’ 74-58 win on Jan. 8 in the O’Connell Center. Finney-Smith led UF in points in its win against Arkansas on Saturday.

For the second straight Southeastern Conference game, the Gators will be without their leading scorer Casey Prather due to a bone bruise in his right knee.

After sitting out No. 7 Florida’s (13-2, 2-0 SEC) overtime win in Arkansas on Saturday, the senior forward is still not healthy enough for tonight’s matchup against Georgia (8-6, 2-0 SEC) at 7 in the O’Connell Center.

“He still has issues,” coach Billy Donovan said. “He’s getting better. He’s progressing. When he’ll be available to play, I don’t know, but he’s out (Tuesday).”

Despite missing the 17 points per game Prather brings to the court, the Gators edged the Razorbacks 84-82 behind Dorian Finney-Smith’s career-high 22 points and Scottie Wilbekin’s 18 points, which tied a career high.

“I would just say that we have an internal confidence as a team when it gets in those types of situations,” Wilbekin said. “We just have a confidence we’re going to pull it (through) especially after winning so many of those games. It just builds more confidence.”

With the additional five minutes of overtime, Florida scored the most points against an SEC opponent since defeating Arkansas 98-68 on Feb. 18, 2012, which was the last time the Gators won in Fayetteville, Ark.

However, Florida State is the only school Florida has faced that has allowed fewer points than Georgia. The Bulldogs also rank among the top 20 in the nation in field goals allowed.

If the Gators are to extend their home winning streak to a school record 25 wins tonight, both Finney-Smith and Wilbekin will have to carry the load on offense as well as burn up some minutes on the court.

Without Prather, who averages 28.7 minutes per game, Donovan was forced to start Finney-Smith for just the second time all season against Arkansas. Finney-Smith stayed in the game for a career-high 42 minutes. Wilbekin, who said he was playing at 80 to 90 percent because of a sprained right ankle, still had to play 35 minutes.

“He’s still sore,” Donovan said of his senior point guard. “He’s still dealing with some issues. He should be able to play (Tuesday).”

Contributing to Finney-Smith’s and Wilbekin’s extra playing time was the health of center Patric Young. The senior was limited due to tendinitis in his knees and played for just 21 minutes Saturday, including just 1:29 in overtime before fouling out.

Donovan said Young practiced Sunday and Monday and should be a “full go” for tonight’s contest.

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Florida has been outrebounded in its past two SEC matchups and will need a mobile Young to help Finney-Smith grab more boards. Finney-Smith recorded nine offensive rebounds against the Razorbacks, while no one else on the Gators collected more than one each.

Donovan said his frontcourt will need to take advantage of more second chance opportunities against the Bulldogs, who Donovan said have more offensive options this season than they did during their two losses to the Gators last year.

“They’re getting almost 15 offensive rebounds per game in their first two SEC games,” Donovan said.

“With the way they run their offense, they’re always going to have their three, four and five relatively close to the basket, and they really do a great job of getting to the backboard and creating offensive rebounds.”

Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @jczupryn

Dorian Finney-Smith (right) defends USC’s Sindarius Thornwell (middle) during Florida’s’ 74-58 win on Jan. 8 in the O’Connell Center. Finney-Smith led UF in points in its win against Arkansas on Saturday.

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