KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — In the days leading up to his team’s Southeastern Conference opener, Kenny Boynton felt like the Gators were finally prepared to play away from Gainesville.
Though Florida had lost all three of its true road games prior to Saturday’s trip to Tennessee, the approach Boynton saw in practice by his teammates left him confident. Any strangeness that came with an 11 a.m. tipoff in Thompson-Boling Arena was offset by spending early sessions in the gym all week.
“Everything was there,” said Boynton, a junior guard. “I think we had two great practices. It was a morning game, but I can’t say that. I’ve seen this coming.”
But there he was following the game, sitting down outside the visiting locker room and trying to explain how No. 13 Florida (12-4, 0-1 SEC) had dropped its fourth straight road game in a 67-56 loss to an unranked and previously .500 Tennessee (8-7, 1-0 SEC) team.
Just 10 days earlier, UF lost to Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J.
The Gators, who came into Knoxville, Tenn., averaging 85.4 points per game, were held to a season-low and suffered through long scoring droughts brought on by the Volunteer’s physical defense, which held UF without a field goal for a 9:22 span in the final 20 minutes.
“You’re going to have days like this,” said Boynton, who tied for a team-high 13 points. “There were stretches in the second half where we didn’t score. That hurt us. Also they scored a great percentage.”
Sophomore forward Erik Murphy also notched 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting, but was concerned more with the Gators’ lackadaisical defense.
“They were getting a lot of easy baskets,” Murphy said. “They were executing their offense really well and we didn’t guard as well as we could have. When you combine those two together, they’re going to score.”
Florida coach Billy Donovan said he was able to stomach his team's poor shooting night, but the Gators' defensive effort left him disappointed.
Tennessee shot 51 percent from the field and an efficient, 5 of 10 from three to take a 33-29 lead at the break and outscore Florida 34-27 in the second half.
“Playing on the road, kind of for me, is a mentality that you have to have,” Donovan said. “I think we’ve been a pretty good road team. Certainly, two of the teams that we’ve played on the road were ranked (No.) 1 and (No.) 3 in the country.”
Boynton described the Volunteers as clearly the tougher team during the late morning game. All but two Tennessee players scored, led by junior forward Kenny Hall’s 13 points and12 more from 6-foot-7, 265-pound forward Jeronne Maymon.
“Bad defense on us, blow-bys,” Boynton said. “I think Maymon killed us down low. They were getting our loose balls. They were scoring off those. They got easy steals. I think in every way they scored tonight on us.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Tennessee's Kenny Hall (20) grabs a rebound away from Florida's Erik Murphy in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012, in Knoxville, Tenn. Tennessee won 67-56. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)
