After weeks of playing well in only one aspect of the game at a
time, the Gators finally put together a complete game Saturday
night.
Florida (15-4, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) had what may have been
its best performance of the year, as it shot 50 percent and kept
the Arkansas (12-6, 2-3 SEC) offense under wraps, notching a 75-43
blowout victory in the O’Connell Center.
“I think we put it all together,” senior Chandler Parsons said. “We
played well on offense, we executed and we played very unselfish.
And on the defensive end we also locked up.”
Saturday’s performance served as a microcosm of what many believed
this Florida team would be coming in to the season.
Throughout the season the Gators have produced games where they
show flashes on either offense or defense, but Saturday they showed
what they were capable of when they do both.
“I thought from start to finish it was a real complete game for
us,” coach Billy Donovan said.
Coming off of a putrid offensive performance against Auburn in
which they shot just 27.6 percent in a 45-40 win, the Gators had
one of their strongest scoring outputs of the year.
But while the offense was entirely different from the way it played
at Auburn, the defense looked like the same unit that held the
Tigers to their lowest point total in the shot-clock era, this time
keeping Arkansas to just 29.4 percent shooting.
“Everyone put that game Thursday behind us and they really just
wanted to come out and play defense,” sophomore guard Kenny Boynton
said.
Boynton was arguably UF’s best defender as he played a major role
in shutting out junior guard Rotnei Clarke, who came into the game
as Arkansas’ leading scorer with 13.5 points per contest.
Clarke mustered just three shot attempts for the game, including
two air balls from three-point range.
“That was my focus coming into this game: trying to shut him down,”
Boynton said. “He’s a great player, great shooter, and I just
wanted to do my best to disrupt anything he had going on.”
After making just 15 field goals in Thursday’s game against the
Tigers, the Gators came out hot and made 16 baskets in the first 20
minutes.
Florida worked the ball inside early and often, as senior center
Vernon Macklin scored the team’s first eight points.
“That’s our game plan every day,” Macklin said. “Go inside, either
post feeds or drives.”
Rather than playing a zone scheme like the one Auburn employed to
great success, the Razorbacks opted to stay in a man-to-man defense
for most of the contest.
This allowed the Gators to make easy post feeds and attack the
basket, as they attempted just five threes in the first half.
Against the Tigers, Florida was forced to hoist 13 three-point
attempts in the first twenty minutes.
“We actually planned a little bit that they were going to play some
zone seeing how poorly we shot at Auburn,” Boynton said. “It was a
good job on our part. When they played man-to-man most of the game,
we kept executing our offense. They would rarely switch to zone,
but when they did we got into zone offense and I think we just did
a really good job.”
UF’s interior presence started to open things up on the outside,
allowing Boynton to hit a trio of shots from beyond the arc in the
first 20 minutes.
Although Florida opened the Auburn game just 3 for 24 from long
distance, Boynton never shied away from an open three, connecting
on four of his seven attempts on the way to a team-high 20
points.
“He’s already done with Thursday,” Parsons said. “That’s over with
so he moved on. He’s a scorer, he’s going to shoot the ball no
matter if he goes 0 for 9 or 9 for 9.”
Macklin and senior forward Alex Tyus each chipped in 13 points as
the Gators powered their way to 42 points in the paint.
UF also dominated the interior on the glass, as it finished the
game with a 43-30 rebounding edge thanks mostly to a career-high 15
for Parsons.
“I kept blocking out and the ball would bounce my way tonight,”
Parsons said. “On the offensive end I just crashed as hard as I
could every play.”
Parsons notched just five points with five assists, but he was able
to dominate the boards against an Arkansas team that started three
guards 6-foot-1 or shorter.
