When the Gators first arrived in Fayetteville, Ark., Kenny Boynton reminded his longtime teammate Erving Walker of their last trip to Bud Walton Arena more than two years ago.
Boynton was still a freshman then and had 13 points in Florida's win on Jan. 21, 2010. But it was Walker, a sophomore, who had the career-best performance with 27 points and five made threes in the Razorbacks' 19,368-seat "Basketball Palace of Mid-America."
That night Walker missed only one shot from behind the arc — a far cry from his most recent four-game stretch with the Gators. Since playing Vanderbilt two weeks ago, Walker, now a senior, was just 2-of-22 from 3-point range.
"I told him yesterday when we were at shootaround, I said, ‘It's going to be a good day for you,'" Boynton said. "He had a good game two years ago and he just believed in his shot. He did a great job this whole week working on his shot."
In front of a sellout crowd Saturday night, Walker once again led No. 14 Florida (21-6, 9-3 Southeastern Conference) with a career-high effort of 31 points on 5-of-6 shooting from three to help deal Arkansas (17-10, 5-7 SEC) a 30-point loss.
The 98-68 Gators' victory was the first the Razorbacks had allowed in 17 previous home games this season and was largely fueled by the re-emergence of Walker's and Florida's scoring touch.
UF shot 58.3 percent from the field and made 56.5 percent of its 23 attempts from three, leading to a 26-point halftime lead.
Walker jumpstarted a 34-16 run by the Gators beginning at the 11:23 mark with 11 straight points on a layup and three 3-pointers. He ended the opening half a perfect 4 for 4 from deep.
"When he's playing well it changes the complexion of our team because you have to account for him," coach Billy Donovan said. "He is a good enough passer that he can find people and get guys shots and what he did tonight not only shooting the ball but passing the ball was really good."
Four days after breaking the school record for career assists, Walker dished out five more and had zero turnovers. He was joined in double figures by three other Gators, including Boynton who had 25 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field.
Freshman guard Brad Beal scored 21 and hauled in nine rebounds, while junior forward Erik Murphy chipped in 13 points.
"We did a great job driving the ball — extra pass, ball movement," Donovan said. "We got good open threes by Beal, Boynton, Walker ... I thought our backcourt really played phenomenal."
Florida's frontcourt also turned in strong effort and allowed the Gators to out-rebound an SEC opponent for the first time in three games with a 40-24 advantage on the boards.
While junior guard Mike Rosario stayed in Gainesville to recover from a hip pointer, UF welcomed back rebounding specialist Will Yeguete into the lineup after the 6-foot-7 sophomore missed Tuesday's Alabama game with his second concussion of the season.
In 27 minutes of work on the glass, Yeguete had 11 boards along with four points.
"We know that in a game there are going to runs — we had a great run in the first half where we hit a lot of threes and they came back and had a run," Boynton said. "But I think we handled it well. We struck back."
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Florida point guard Erving Walker scored a career-high 31 points in UF's 98-68 win against Arkansas on Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark.
