On a night in which Florida’s guards seemed lost in a season-low shooting performance against Arizona, the Gators had no other choice but to turn inside.
What they found was a breakout offensive display from sophomore center Patric Young.
The 6-foot-9 Young posted a career-high 25 points and collected 10 rebounds to help No. 12 Florida edge Arizona 78-72 in overtime Wednesday at the O’Connell Center.
“My whole tenure being here I haven’t really done too much offensively in the post to make teams really come in and just try and keep me out of my game, and tonight I established that,” he said.
Young made 12 of 15 shots and had 14 points by halftime to keep the Gators (6-2), who finished 26.7 percent from three, in touch with the Wildcats (6-3).
Coach Billy Donovan said Young was on pace to hit upwards of 35 points if guards Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker would have worked the ball in to the post more. Florida had a dominating advantage in the paint with Young matched up against 6-foot-7 Arizona forward Jesse Perry and 6-foot-6 forward Solomon Hill, who was in foul trouble for most of the game.
“Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton need to do a better job of reading what is going on inside the game,” Donovan said. “We should have just played out of Patric Young the whole entire night.”
While Donovan wanted Young to have 40 touches in the paint, Boynton and Walker continued to pursue difficult shots from deep. They ended a combined 5-for-27 from the field and 2 of 15 from 3-point range.
Despite the poor guard play, Florida held a 66-63 advantage with 8 seconds left in regulation. The game was sent into overtime only after UF’s Casey Prather fouled Hill in the act of shooting behind the 3-point line on Arizona’s final possession.
“I think our guys probably could have come to the huddle disappointed, disenchanted that the game’s going into overtime,” Donovan said. “We showed some resiliency and some fight. You know, I was pretty annoyed, but I think our guys kept a pretty good focus.”
In the extra period, the Gators went on a 12-6 run sparked by the struggling Boynton and Walker. The duo hit seven crucial free throws down the stretch after Florida made just 7 of 20 from the charity stripe in regulation.
“It’s huge because it answers a lot of questions about our team,” Young said. “When guys aren’t having good nights, are they still helping the team in the winning process collectively? ... Like Kenny was struggling shooting offensively tonight and Erv and Brad (Beal) a little bit, but those guys really picked it up for us defensively with steals and got rebounds that they needed to do to help us win as a team.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
