With Erik Murphy suffering from a broken rib and Will Yeguete nursing tendinitis in his right knee, Florida needed a frontcourt player to step up against Georgia.
Casey Prather answered the call.
Prather started with a one-armed offensive rebound that led to a layup.
2-0, Gators.
Then, Prather made a jumper from the wing.
4-0.
Shortly after, he stole the ball from Bulldogs guard Vincent Williams and finished with a breakaway dunk.
The two-handed slam gave UF an early 6-0 lead.
“I just wanted to be aggressive,” Prather said.
“I know this is a big game for us getting started with [Southeastern Conference] play, so I was just trying to figure out what I could do to win.”
In his first start since Feb. 24, 2011, Prather led the charge as the No. 11 Gators opened with an 11-0 run.
The strong start put Georgia away early in No. 11 Florida’s 77-44 win.
While his early scoring caught the most attention, Prather’s performance was well-rounded.
For the first time in his Florida career, the junior led the Gators in rebounds, grabbing seven against the Bulldogs.
Prather hauled in possibly his biggest rebound with 5:21 left in the first half.
After Brandon Morris missed a jumper, Prather grabbed the rebound over Patric Young and Georgia’s 6-foot-11 center, John Florveus.
Prather also led the Gators with three steals, which tied a career high.
“He’s given us a different dimension and a different kind of guy, because when we play him at the power forward spot, he’s an undersized forward, but he’s quick (and) he’s athletic,” coach Billy Donovan said.
“He grabbed some incredible rebounds [Wednesday] in traffic. … It’s been two games now where he’s gotten back into the way he was at the end of last year.”
Guard Mike Rosario added: “I thought he did a great job at rebounding, being in the right spot (and) making smart decisions with the play.”
While Prather anticipated that he would play against Georgia, he didn’t learn he was starting until Wednesday morning.
His first career start was on Feb. 20, 2011 in a 68-61 win against LSU.
Four days later Donovan gave him the starting nod again, this time for Florida’s 71-62 victory against Georgia.
Prather didn’t have much success in his two previous starts. In both games combined, he was scoreless on 0-for-3 shooting while grabbing only three rebounds, an assist and one steal in 22 minutes.
On Wednesday night, Prather took advantage of his opportunity to start for the first time since his freshman year with his best performance of the season.
Although Wednesday was Prather’s first start, the forward is still seeing a significant increase in playing time. He’s averaging 15.8 minutes per game after averaging 9.5 minutes his sophomore year and 6.7 his freshman year.
“I felt that with his focus that he had in the last couple of practices that he deserved it,” Rosario said.
“One thing I can tell you about our ball team is that we have a lot of depth on our team. Any second, anyone is ready to come in and produce.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
Forward Casey Prather (24) looks for a scoring option against Georgia defender Nemanja Djurisic in Florida’s 77-44 win on Wednesday in the O’Connell Center. Prather scored 10 points in the victory.
