ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – If Florida’s upset of No. 2 Michigan State on Friday announced the team’s return to college basketball relevance, Saturday’s game proved the Gators aren’t going anywhere.
UF (6-0) overcame a sluggish start that came as a result of its exhausting, last-minute victory the night before and avoided the post-upset letdown, winning the championship game of the Legends Classic 73-58 against Rutgers (3-2) in Boardwalk Hall.
“Tonight we came out and we wanted to show everyone that last night’s game wasn’t a fluke, and we wanted to respond after the win,” said freshman guard Kenny Boynton, who led the Gators with a game-high 19 points. “We’ve heard people say we’re soft, so we basically wanted to put pressure on both these teams early and get the wins.”
Boynton and his teammates were clearly affected by the energy they expended in Friday night’s game, allowing the Scarlet Knights to hang around during the first half and getting to halftime with just a five-point lead.
The Gators’ press wasn’t as effective as it had been, they were settling for outside shots, and Florida coach Billy Donovan said they were dribbling too much instead of making the passes they needed to.
But UF came out fired up after intermission and never led by fewer than eight points for the rest of the night.
“Coach Donovan talked to us at halftime and told us not to come out flat, so we came out ready to play,” said center Vernon Macklin, who scored 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting and added eight rebounds. “Everybody got together before we came out and just talked about how we were going to execute on offense and defense, and we just worked everything like he wanted us to do it.”
Macklin and point guard Erving Walker were named to the Legends Classic all-tournament team after the game.
Walker, who scored 11 points and dished out five assists, took home tournament MVP honors in front of his family and friends, who came to watch him from his nearby home in New York.
“That award is good, but I’m just happy we won and I got to play in front of some of my family and friends,” Walker said. “It’s good to be out here. Hopefully (Donovan) brings us back to some more tournaments up north.”
Erik Murphy, whose family also made the trip to New Jersey from Rhode Island, provided a spark off the bench for the Gators when Macklin needed a break. The freshman scored eight points, grabbed three boards and was active in the team’s full-court pressure, although he showed his youth by recording four fouls in just 12 minutes of play.
“I knew he was going to have to play more minutes tonight just because of playing yesterday, but he really finished some plays around the basket, did a nice job,” Donovan said. “I think he probably set a record for fouls in the shortest period of time, but he did a nice job.”
After an impressive upset and avoiding the subsequent letdown on consecutive nights, Donovan said his team can still improve. After playing four games in eight days, the coming week’s comparatively lighter schedule is exactly what his team needs.
“What we really need after playing these four or five games – and they don’t like to hear this – we really need practice time that we can really practice some things they need to get better at,” Donovan said.
