Florida bounces back to rout N.C. A&T 105-55

By Adam Silverstein
November 19, 2010

Just two days after suffering a tough loss at home to No. 4/5 Ohio State, the No. 9/10 Florida Gators (2-1) rebounded with a dominating 105-55 victory over the North Carolina A&T Aggies (1-3) at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL.

Senior forward Chandler Parsons and sophomore guard Kenny Boynton led the Gators with 16 points apiece and were just two of eight Florida players to score in double figures on the evening. Freshman F Will Yeguete proved to be a dominating presence down low, grabbing 15 rebounds (nine offensive) while also scoring seven points, dishing four assists and stealing the ball thrice.

Yeguete’s 15 boards were the most by a freshman since Al Horford (18 vs. Alabama in 2005), but he was not the only first-year player to have a big night. Center Patric Young posted 11 points, six rebounds, four steals and two blocks, G Casey Prather scored 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting (2-of-4 from downtown), and point guard Scottie Wilbekin finished with 11 points and six assists.

Rounding out the starting five for the Gators were senior C Vernon Macklin (10 points, six rebounds, two blocks), PG Erving Walker (11 points, six assists, no turnovers) and sophomore F Erik Murphy (11 points, four rebounds, two blocks). Murphy started the first game of his young career in place of senior F Alex Tyus, who missed the contest with a mild concussion but is expected to return to action on Sunday.

Up 28 points late in the first half and eventually winning the game by 50, Florida scored 52 points in the paint, 35 off turnovers and 25 on second chances. The Gators’ bench produced 41 points, which helped UF score more than 100 for the first time since defeating North Florida by 102 in 2007. Florida also notched 26 assists, 16 steals and eight blocks while turning the ball over 11 times as a team.

Though most of the team was solid defensively, head coach Billy Donovan had to sit Boynton early on due to a poor defensive effort. He returned to the court after a quick talking to and helped hold North Carolina A&T to 34.5 percent shooting on the evening.

The Gators are back in action in less than 72 hours, taking on Morehead State in the O’Dome on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. The game will air live on Sun Sports.

POST-GAME NOTES & QUOTES (After the break…)

STANDOUT QUOTES
On Yeguete’s stellar performance: “This is not surprising to me. His issue is sometimes he’s got to get better in terms of handling and passing the basketball. He has a tendency sometimes to turn it over a little bit too much. He is going to be a terrific player because he’s a guy that embraces the dirty work. Loose balls, hustle plays, offensive rebounds – he’s got great hands, he’s got an incredible nose for the ball. He’s very physical. Very, very physical. He is going to be a terrific player because he does things and takes pride in things that really impact winning.”

On sitting Boynton early in the game: “The first possession of the game, on the help side, he was way, way outside the lane. As a coach, when you’ve got one of your better players [making mistakes], those younger guys understand that if he’s coming out of the game for not being where he’s supposed to be, I’m probably coming out of the game, too. If you’re not where you’re supposed to be and what you should be doing, you got to come out of the game and get somebody else. It wasn’t necessarily sending a message to him, it was just, ‘We got to get better in that area.’”

On Young’s talents: “He’s got a different personality, but he’s got a very similar mentality to Joakim Noah. ‘I’m going to play harder, I’m going to be more aggressive, I’m going to exhaust myself and all the mental parts of the game don’t mean anything because I’m going to play so hard.’ He’s starting to figure out that he needs to get a better feel of what we’re doing and how he needs to guard and defend. That’s just a maturing and a growing process for him.”

OTHER QUOTES
On how the team started the game: “I was really encouraged with the way our guys responded and the attitude they came out with.”

On a big backcourt improvement: “Both of our point guards had six assists and zero turnovers. You get 12 assists, zero turnovers from your good point guards – that’s always a very positive statistic.”

On what he saw during the game: “What did we do regardless of who we were playing against? The unselfishness, the ball movement, the encouraging for one another, our freshmen getting minutes, the way Erving Walker responded coming off of a game where he had seven turnovers against Ohio State. There was just some things we tried to address as a team the last 24 hours. As a coach, when you see your group of kids trying to execute what you’ve talked about, you feel good about where the focus was. The focus for our guys tonight for 40 minutes was on the right things that we need to do to get better.”

On Tyus’ health: “He will probably play on Sunday; that is our guess. I would anticipate that he would play on Sunday.”

Photo Credit: University of Florida/GatorZone

3 Comments

  1. Gatorbuc15 says:

    Good bonce back win.
    It’s always nice when you win by 50 points.

  2. rick says:

    Nice to see the athleticism in our freshmen class- it’s what we’ve lacked for the last couple years and why Tennessee always beats our brains out. If they can play significant minutes during SEC games it should make for an interesting season!

  3. Basshole says:

    Good bounce back game. I know it’s not a huge deal, but it was nice to see one of Young’s blocks on SportsCenter top 10

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