NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Florida finally fixed its woeful outside shooting, but one of the Gators’ supposed strengths turned into a glaring weakness Saturday.
Guards Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker combined for 50 points on 11-of-22 three-point shooting, but UF struggled with foul trouble, couldn’t stop Vanderbilt on the other end of the floor and dropped its Southeastern Conference opener 95-87 in Memorial Gym.
The Gators (11-4, 0-1 SEC) went 13 of 27 from beyond the arc — a huge improvement on their recent efforts — but showed no signs of the tough defense they prided themselves on early in the season.
With centers Vernon Macklin and Erik Murphy in foul trouble all game, the Commodores (12-3, 1-0 SEC) capitalized down low, scoring 40 points in the paint and 18 second-chance points.
“It should be a great lesson for our team — and you hate to have it happen here,” Donovan said. “Here’s a game where we come on the road and shoot 52 percent from the field and 48 percent from three and lose.
“There’s some significance in the fact that our basketball team has got to continue to be committed to playing defense at the level we need to.”
Donovan said the foul trouble was the source of most of his team’s problems, as it forced Alex Tyus to play center and Dan Werner to play 35 minutes — a lot of them out of position at power forward.
Tyus shot well, scoring 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting, but managed just two rebounds in 30 minutes.
Even when they did play, Macklin and Murphy were ineffective, combining for six points, four rebounds and 10 fouls in 27 minutes.
Despite the fouls and getting practically no production from the center position, the Gators actually ended the first half up by two thanks to hot shooting by Boynton and Walker.
But Vanderbilt regrouped at halftime and came out with a concerted effort to attack Florida’s foul-laden frontcourt.
“We came out to start the second half and said, ‘Hey, let’s make sure we throw the ball inside because they’re in a little bit of foul trouble,’ and that just kept growing,” Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said.
Commodores center A.J. Ogilvy scored eight of his 16 second-half points in the first 2:34 after intermission, giving Vanderbilt a 50-49 lead it never relinquished. Ogilvy, the preseason All-SEC center, finished with 24 points and eight rebounds.
Vanderbilt’s 53 second-half points were the most allowed by UF since Feb. 14, 2009, when Georgia scored 54 in the opening half.
“I told our team at halftime to just finish off the game,” said Boynton, whose 28 points were the most for a Florida freshman since Matt Walsh scored 29 on Dec. 28, 2002. “We didn’t listen, and I think we didn’t finish off the game.”
With 29 total second-half foul calls, and Donovan having to change his lineup as a result of his team’s foul situation, the Gators were inconsistent on both ends of the floor and were simply outplayed after halftime by the deeper Commodores, who had 27 points off the bench to the Gators’ 12.
“Every time you think you get momentum going, they come down and get a foul or an and-one — they got so many and-ones tonight,” Boynton said. “It was just like we couldn’t get anything going.”
Unlike in the Gators’ previous losses this season, Walker said he thought UF was prepared to play and came out with energy, just not enough to win.
“It’s just something that happens,” Walker said. “We were mentally focused and ready to go today, but we just didn’t play a full 40 minutes.”
