Frontcourt leads Florida over Auburn in O’Dome

Led by a strong all-around effort from junior forward Chandler Parsons, the Florida Gators (18-8, 7-4 SEC) held on for a 78-70 victory over the Auburn Tigers (12-14, 3-8 SEC) Thursday evening at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL.

In a must-win game for the Gators, their frontcourt players stepped up from the get-go, scoring 42 of the team’s 78 points and amassing 23 of Florida’s 28 rebounds. Parsons, who led the Gators with a team-high 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting with five rebounds and four assists, had plenty of support from starting juniors F Alex Tyus (12 points, seven rebounds) and center Vernon Macklin (seven points, four rebounds). Surprisingly, it was Florida’s bench that truly made the difference as senior F Dan Werner went 3-for-5 for nine points and four boards and freshman F Erik Murphy contributed seven points on 3-of-3 shooting with three rebounds.

Read the rest of OGGOA’s Florida vs. Auburn game story after the jump!

Werner began the game 2-for-2 from the field, his first baskets since facing Mississippi State on Feb. 6. His nine points were the most he had scored since putting up 11 against Vanderbilt on Jan. 9. Conversely, sophomore point guard Erving Walker had trouble hitting anything from the field. He finished 0-for-6 with six assists but managed to score 14 points off of 16 free throw attempts. Freshman guard Kenny Boynton added 10 points of his own and went 5-of-7 from the line to help the Gators finish an impressive 32-for-40 (80 percent) from the charity stripe.

Beginning the game with an early lead, Florida allowed Auburn to take over with a three-pointer from G Andre Malone with 6:47 left in the first half; it would be the last time the Tigers would lead on Thursday. Up three at the break, the Gators used a 10-1 run to open up a nine-point lead (52-43) with 13:51 left on the clock. A sequence of Werner driving the lane for a strong left-handed dunk and Tyus catching a powerful alley-oop got the Rowdy Reptiles on their feet. Riding the momentum, Florida would take a game-high 11-point lead with 9:39 remaining, though Auburn quickly responded with a 9-3 run on three straight three-pointers to cut its deficit to five with 5:45 left.

The Tigers used 7-2 run to reduce the Gators’ lead to 72-68 with only 47.9 ticks on the clock. Though they did not score a field goal in the last 8:26 of the game, Florida hit 15-of-20 free throws in the contest’s final minutes to pull out the home win.

G DeWayne Reed led Auburn with 22 points and six assists while G Tay Walker added 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds. F Lucas Hargrove finished with two points after going 0-for-3 from the field.

The Gators continue their stretch of three games in six days as they hit the road Saturday to take on the Ole Miss Rebels at noon. The game will air live on CBS. Florida will then return home to host the Tennessee Volunteers at 9 p.m. on Feb. 23.