TAMPA — With the score tied at 22 late in the first half, Scottie Wilbekin drove the ball to the net, hoping to put the Gators ahead in his first game of the season. Although Wilbekin missed the shot, Will Yeguete was right behind him to grab the rebound and score the put back.
After early turnovers and foul trouble plagued UF, Yeguete led No. 10 Florida (3-0) to a 66-45 win against Middle Tennessee (2-1) in The Tampa Bay Times Forum.
“I was just trying to go after all the rebounds today, because [Middle Tennessee] was scrambling a lot and they were pressuring us,” Yeguete said. “We talked about it when we were getting ready for them, but I don’t think we thought they were going to be that physical.”
Yeguete racked up 11 points and 13 rebounds for his first double-double this season. The 6-foot-7 junior started strong, narrowly missing a double-double in the first half. He entered the second half with 10 points and eight rebounds while avoiding turnovers and accounting for only one foul. He also made the first three-pointer of his career.
Despite shooting 66.7 percent from the field, Yeguete struggled from the line, making only 2 of 6 free throws. As a team, Florida was 17 of 29 from the charity stripe.
“The one area that I wish we had done a little bit better in the second half was shoot free throws,” coach Billy Donovan said. “But overall I thought the presence up front in the second half was the difference in the game.”
After serving a three-game suspension for undisclosed reasons, Wilbekin took the court for his first game of the season.
Wilbekin started slowly against Middle Tennessee. In the first half, the 6-foot-2 point guard had only two points on 25-percent shooting. But Wilbekin shined after halftime, finishing with eight points, three assists and two steals.
“It was definitely a little bit of an adjustment having a week and a half off,” Wilbekin said. “The first half I was trying to find my place a little bit, and in the second half I got into the flow.”
Although Yeguete was key to UF’s early success, Kenny Boynton, who scored a game-high 20 points, provided a late spark. After missing all four field goal attempts in the first half, Boynton notched the Gators’ final 13 points, including a perfect 7-of-7 clip from the line.
“The shots that I shot in the first half, I thought those were going to drop,” Boynton said. “But they didn’t, so I stayed poised. They were a great defensive team, (but) in the end I just got open looks, and I capitalized on them.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
Will Yeguete (15) shoots in UF’s 66-45 win against Middle Tennessee at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Sunday.
