ORLANDO — Though the Gators didn’t play their prettiest game on Monday night or win by their largest margin of the young season, they saw no problem in drenching their coach in a ceremonial Gatorade bath.
Despite missing an injured starter and losing a bench player to foul trouble, No. 10 Florida (5-1) secured coach Billy Donovan a 400th career victory by beating Stetson 96-70 in Orlando’s Amway Center.
“Yeah, I got (soaked) pretty good,” Donovan said. “I’m not sure who’s paying for the dry-cleaning bill, but it was special. Like I told those guys when I walked in there: Again, they’re a part of it too. … It’s nice when you can go in a locker room and you see a group of guys happy for 400 games.”
After Donovan changed into some fresh clothes, so did his team’s mentality on the game they just played.
In the first half, the Gators were outrebounded 21-19 by the Hatters and were held scoreless during a four-minute stretch late in the period.
Stetson went on a 13-0 run during UF’s drought, and four different Gators failed to connect on six straight threes in the scoreless spurt.
In a 14-of-35 shooting night for Florida where most of its long-range threats struggled, freshman Brad Beal proved to be a bright spot by draining five 3-point shots and notching his second career double-double with a game-high 22 points and 10 rebounds.
For the second consecutive game, Beal was forced into the power forward slot at times due to foul trouble by UF’s traditional big men and 6-foot-10 junior Erik Murphy’s knee injury. Forward Casey Prather fouled out with 6:14 left and starting center Patric Young was limited with four fouls.
“I wouldn’t say it had fallen on my shoulders really because everyone’s rebounding,” Beal said. “Coach Donovan is always on me about rebounding, so I just tried to do whatever it took to push it on the offensive end and try to rebound as much as I could.”
Beal’s game-best nine defensive boards, including five in the second half, helped the Gators regain their pace and limit the Hatters to just four second-chance points after allowing seven in the opening 20 minutes.
“I felt like that was going to be a key in the second half, that we could not give up second shots because when we were getting out on the break, good things were happening,” Donovan said.
Though guards Kenny Boynton and Mike Rosario ended the game a combined 5 of 15 from three, the 5-foot-8 Walker was able to battle back from a poor shooting start by hitting 4 of 5 shots in the last 12 minutes. He finished with 21 points and a game-best six assists.
“Coach Donovan just told us we always got to come out and be aggressive no matter who the team is and that Stetson had a weaker team, but they are good enough to beat us,” Walker said. “We listen to everything he says and we believe in him, so we knew we had to be ready to go.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org
Brad Beal scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as Florida defeated Stetson, 96-70, on Monday to secure coach Billy Donovan's 400th career win.
