From the 1:34 mark of the first half against Alabama to the 14:57 mark of the second half, Florida went on a 19-0 run in Tuscaloosa that turned a 26-23 deficit into a massive 42-26 lead. And on this Valentine's Day, that was all the Gators needed to get back to their winning ways, as they held on in the second half for a 61-52 victory.
Florida got a lot of production from a weird "big three": Patric Young led all scorers with 19 points, Erik Murphy had 14 points, five rebounds, and four steals, and Bradley Beal had 14 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks, two steals, and one thunderous dunk late in the game that, well, watch it after the jump via @GatorNicole.
That more than made up for bad scoring nights from Erving Walker (five points on one-for-six shooting) and Kenny Boynton (nine points, two-for-eight), though Walker recovered from a bad first half to dish out seven assists and break Ronnie Montgomery's school record for career assists. Five of Walker's seven assists came in the 16-0 stretch to begin the second half.
This is the sort of performance Florida needs on the road, and though the parts of the game that bookended that fantastic run were less than ideal, sometimes less than ideal is enough.
After the jump, the GIF of Beal's dunk, via Only Gators.
It looks even more impressive from the angle from behind Beal, but I haven't seen that get uploaded just yet.
0 recs | 15 comments
That dunk by Beal was SICK!
And I really don’t think that his celebration (if you wanna call it that) was worthy of a technical foul but whatever.
Gatorbuc15 - February 14, 2012
it was unnecessary, but not to the point that the announcers were carrying on about it. They said he should act like he’s been there before. Uhhh, he is a freshman after all!
skigator93 - February 14, 2012
IKR?
They were acting like he threw the ball into the crowd or something.
Gatorbuc15 - February 14, 2012
Better yet
He is a freshman who is 6’4" who just dunked on a guy 8 inches taller who fouled him hard trying to stop him.
Take yer damn foul and stick it some place where the sun doesn’t shine.
SC-Gator - February 15, 2012 via Android app
Gotta love Pat's face on that gif
While Beal stares down his victim
ECFIVESTER - February 15, 2012
Someone told me the announcers were seriously talking about UF not in the tourney? 3 of our 6 losses were to then NO. 1,2 and 3 ranked teams at their arena. Rutgers and UT are also away games. Don’t see an argument for us not making tourney.
Tscott2015 - February 15, 2012
Yeah, we will get there.
FlaGators - February 15, 2012
Florida's not missing the tournament unless the Gators lose every single remaining game
even then, the Gators might slide in as a 12 seed.
Chekhov's Spread Gun Option - February 15, 2012
If UF would have lost both games this week
We would have definitely been sliding towards the bubble. Our last two games are at Vandy and vs Kentucky. Those could easily be losses add in a loss at Georgia and we would probably be out.
Sveet - February 15, 2012
One thing to worry about
Boynton-39 minutes
Beal- 38 minutes
Walker- 37 minutes
That was Young’s fault, because he couldn’t stop fouling. Florida played Wilbekin as the 6th man, which caused two problems. First, the Gators played impossibly small. Alabama couldn’t keep up, thanks to their own big man depth issues, but a normal team is going to see a lineup with one player over 6’5" and say “hey, lets go inside” and then they’re going to go inside, and then they’re going to shoot about 85% from the field.
Second, Florida’s best three guards got zero rest. Normally, Wilbekin comes in to allow Walker or Boynton to sit for a few minutes. With Rosario healthy, the Gators have 5 serviceable guards, which allows them to play their 3 guard look the whole game and keep everybody relatively fresh.
Chekhov's Spread Gun Option - February 15, 2012
Agreed
But – as much as I hate the expression – it is what it is. Out bench only goes three deep for impact players and we are down two. I think if we survive Arkansas we should have both back and be able to play a lot more solid and balanced.
SC-Gator - February 15, 2012 via Android app
Young's Foul Out
I know at one point the Gators had a ridiculously long streak of games without a player fouling out. Did last night break the streak? Or has someone else fouled out recently?
I don’t remember that streak being broken before now, but I certainly haven’t seen every one of our games either.
skigator93 - February 15, 2012
oh – nevermind. Just found this from the current season stats:
FOULOUTS G No.
-————————————-Young, Patric……. 26 2
Prather, Casey…… 18 2
Wilbekin, Scottie… 26 1
skigator93 - February 15, 2012
The way Alabama played we should have won that game by 30
I’m glad we got the win, but the team didn’t look good at all.
We need Yeguete and Rosario back badly.
Sveet - February 15, 2012
“It doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile….”
Wait… Wrong “sport”
FlaGators - February 15, 2012
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