Parsons leads Florida to 84-59 rout of URI

By Adam Silverstein
January 3, 2011

The Florida Gators have struggled coming off major wins this season, losing to Central Florida and Jacksonville after hard-fought victories against Florida State and then-No. 6 Kansas State. Snapping Xavier’s 30-game home winning streak Saturday, Florida (11-3) kept their momentum going Monday by thrashing the Rhode Island Rams (9-5) 84-59 at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL.

Senior forward Chandler Parsons, marred in a slump most of the season, led the way for the Gators with the ninth double-double of his career. He scored 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting (3-for-4 from downtown) and added 12 rebounds (seven offensive) to go along with five assists for his best performance of the season.

Up 13-12 over URI with 11:48 left in the first half, UF took off on a 22-2 run and only allowed the Rams one basket in more than seven minutes. Rhode Island counted with a 7-0 run to cut Florida’s lead to 14 at the half.

The Gators’ lead teetered back-and-forth in the second half, but the Rams never trailed by less than 15 points after the break.

With the game coming to a close, head coach Billy Donovan inserted walk-on guard Kyle McClanahan into the contest. He missed his first two free throws but hustled back down for a layup on the next possession to give Florida a game-high 26-point lead.

Monday’s game turned out to be a dunk-fest for the Gators with Parsons, redshirt senior center Vernon Macklin, senior F Alex Tyus and freshman G/F Casey Prather all throwing it down on their opponents.

Junior point guard Erving Walker was Florida’s second-leading scorer with 14 points on 50 percent shooting from both the field and downtown. Tyus and sophomore G Kenny Boynton each finished with 10 points though Boynton continued to struggle shooting the ball going 3-for-12 from the field and 2-of-7 from beyond the arc.

Macklin finished with six points in limited minutes, and freshmen Prather and C Patric Young both scored eight points without missing a single shot between them.

Rhode Island was led by F Delroy James, who posted 23 points and six rebounds.

With their out-of-conference slate now complete, the Gators are set to begin Southeastern Conference competition on Saturday at home against Ole Miss. The game will air live at 8 p.m. on Comcast Sports South.

3 Comments

  1. Gatorbuc15 says:

    Great win tonight, they played extremely well. Not only did
    they beat Rhode Island they embarrassed them. It was really good to
    see after coming off that big win against Xavier. The offense
    looked crisp and the defense was stifling. I was also really
    pleased with how Chandler played. He really came to play tonight
    and hopefully he will carry this play into the rest of the season.
    Lord knows that he can. Hope that Macklin and Murphy get healthy as
    soon as possible, because we need them in SEC play.

  2. SaraGator says:

    Looks like Parsons has his game back just in time for the
    SEC!

  3. Ken says:

    Watching the game last night, the announcers made it sounds
    like 2/3 of the team were walking dead, they were beat up so badly.
    Going into SEC season, how banged up are they really, and how long
    will it take for them to get up to full strength?

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