TAMPA — Before leaving Gainesville, Kenny Boynton purposefully stayed late in the gym to keep his shooting touch fresh.
Though he rarely has taken extra shots in the past, he had never started a season this hot from three, and he wanted it to continue.
But as Florida warmed up in a St. Pete Times Forum more known for hosting hockey games, Boynton saw his shots clang off the rim and worried that he was in store for a cold night.
“I told myself, just in my head before the game, I said, ‘I hope some luck goes my way because I didn’t have it during the shootaround,” he said.
Less than a minute into No. 10 Florida’s (3-1) neutral-site matchup against Wright State (2-2), Boynton sank the first of his game-high six 3-pointers to help propel the Gators to a 78-65 win.
In 33 minutes on the court, Boynton made half of UF’s threes and scored 22 points as fellow starters Erving Walker and Brad Beal combined to shoot 2 for 11 from behind the arc.
His extra work has paid off in a pair of 20-plus-point games and a team-leading 19 points per game this season.
“Last year, I’d probably have a good shooting day and just go to practice and take a day off and not shoot after,” Boynton said.
Even with Boynton leading a 44 percent shooting charge from three, coach Billy Donovan was not always happy with the Gators’ shot selection. Florida only made eight field goals in the second half and allowed Wright State to creep within single digits twice.
“The encouraging part of some of our 3-point shooting right now is at least tonight Erik knocked down a couple threes, but Erving and Brad Beal did not shoot the ball particularly well,” Donovan said.
The Gators were also thinned in their front line for the second game in a row when sophomore center Patric Young left the floor after being poked in the eye by a Raiders defender. Young sat the last minute of the opening half and didn’t re-enter until 10:53 left in the second.
“He had pretty significant blurred vision in the locker room, but before he went out there he felt like he was getting better,” Donovan said. “Any time you take Patric off the floor — he’s a good player — it always has an effect on your team.”
Florida was fouled four times in the first 3:35 of the half with the 6-foot-9 Young missing in the paint. By the 11:37 mark, the Gators were already in the bonus, putting their 56.9 free-throw percentage to the test.
After only having nine prior attempts at the line, Beal helped quiet some of Florida’s free-throw frustrations by going a game-high 9 for 11 from the line.
As a team, the Gators went 20 for 30 and scored 10 of their last 14 points off free throws in the final six minutes.
“Brad was the one guy I thought, he was 1 for 6 from the 3-point line, but you would have really never noticed it with the way that he was playing because he had some drives to the basket,” Donovan said. “He got to the free-throw line.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Florida junior guard Kenny Boynton scored 22 points Monday off a game-high six 3-pointers in a 78-65 win against Wright State.
