UF pressured Texas A&M defensively on Thursday night, and the Aggies folded.
No. 10 Florida (13-2, 3-0 Southeastern Conference) used a 22-2 run to seal a 68-47 victory against Texas A&M in Reed Arena in College Station, Texas.
“We just knew on the road it’s really tough to come in here and get a win,” junior Patric Young said. “We knew we had to be focused on our concepts of moving the ball around and really locking down on Elston Turner, and we really did a good job of that.”
Turner, the Aggies’ leading scorer with 17.1 points per game before Thursday, scored only 4 points on 1-of-10 shooting. In the senior guard’s last contest — an 83-71 upset against Kentucky on Saturday — he scored 40 points and made 14 of 19 field goal attempts.
“Give Scottie Wilbekin a lot of credit,” coach Billy Donovan said. “He did a heck of a job on Elston Turner and made it very, very difficult on him.”
UF contained Texas A&M (12-4, 2-1 SEC) to 34 percent shooting. Before Thursday’s game, the Aggies shot 45.8 percent.
“I thought in the first half our defensive coverage not only on [Turner] but their team was very good,” Donovan said. “We had a couple breakdowns here and there, but on the road, to come in like that was really impressive by our guys.”
Young scored 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting. The junior center also tallied three steals and pulled down seven rebounds.
After missing Saturday’s 74-52 road win against LSU in Baton Rouge, La., with a left ankle sprain, Mike Rosario scored a team-high 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting. The redshirt senior guard scored 11 of Florida’s first 13 points in the contest’s opening 7 minutes.
Senior forward Erik Murphy recorded 16 points and grabbed seven boards.
The Gators led by only one point with 7:23 remaining in the first half but held the Aggies to 1-of-16 shooting until the 16:16 mark in the second period.
“I thought we got a little lucky in the first half because we gave them a couple offensive rebounds that they didn’t score on,” Donovan said. “Then we had a couple bad possessions on offense. Then we finally got a couple quick points ... Then (Kenny) Boynton hit a three, Murphy hit a three, Patric got a couple three-point plays, and we opened up a pretty good lead.”
Although the Aggies outrebounded the Gators 33-28, UF won the turnover battle 16-11.
With junior forward Casey Prather sidelined due to a high left ankle sprain, Donovan used a rotation of seven players. Four played through injuries.
After Thursday’s game, Donovan has a chance to earn win No. 400 as Florida’s head coach on Saturday against No. 17 Missouri (13-3, 2-1 SEC) at home.
“The key word for this year with [Donovan] has been resilience and persistence through the adversity, through the injuries, the concussions, the sprained ankles,” Young said. “We didn’t hang our heads, and we’ve had great results.”
Young said the quick turnaround won’t be an issue for the banged-up Gators on Saturday.
“We trust our trainers in [Dave] Werner and Preston Greene that they are going to make sure we get ready for the game,” Young said. “(We’re) not worried about our legs.”
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
Mike Rosario (3) embraces Patric Young (4) following Florida’s 77-44 win against Georgia on Jan. 9 in the O’Connell Center.
