The last time the Gators had a home winning streak of 24 games, Billy Donovan was coaching Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Al Horford to two straight national championships.
But on Tuesday night, the longtime coach just needed Michael Frazier II to defeat Georgia 72-50 and extend No. 7 Florida’s (14-2, 3-0 Southeastern Conference) home winning streak to a school-record 25 games.
The sophomore guard, who came into Tuesday night’s contest leading the SEC with a 48.1 three-point shooting percentage, finished his performance against the Bulldogs with a career-high 21 points. He shot 7 of 16 from the floor, including 5 of 12 from beyond the arc.
However, if it wasn’t for his coaches and teammates urging him to shoot more, Frazier would have finished the night with a dismal three-point shooting night.
Georgia (8-7, 2-1 SEC) held the Florida sharpshooter to 1 of 8 behind the arc through the first 32 minutes of the game.
“I can see Michael Frazier — sometimes he misses a couple and it’s like he’s keeping inventory,” Donovan said. “You know the guy is shooting 50 percent from the three-point line. Keep letting them go, it will all even itself out.”
Although the Gators had a 17-point lead with 7:32 in the game, Donovan kept harping on Frazier to let loose when he had the chance. With the encouragement from the bench and his teammates on the court, Frazier evened out his night by hitting four straight threes in just fewer than four minutes.
Frazier said he couldn’t have had this type of turnaround in a game last year because he has gained confidence through experience.
“I probably would have stopped shooting and really just defer,” the 6-foot-4 guard said. “But I think that’s why I’m starting to mature as a player (and) kind of let the last shot go. I’m still getting better at that, but it’s all part of the process of maturing.”
Florida as a whole matured offensively by turning the ball over just eight times, which tied a season low. The Gators complemented the low number of turnovers with 18 assists, which was just one shy of tying a season high as a team.
The 18:8 assists to turnover ratio was Florida’s most efficient of the year.
“We’re getting better,” Donovan said of his squad’s ball movement. “The press helped us a little bit with our assists because we had some open floor situations. The biggest thing is if you look at our guards, (they had) 10 assists combined — 10 assists, no turnovers, which helps.”
In addition to the efficient backcourt performance by the Gators, their frontcourt provided the team with key second chance opportunities.
For the first time in SEC play, Florida did not lose the rebounding battle. Each of the teams finished the night with 23 defensive and 11 offensive boards.
Patric Young, who was honored at the O’Connell Center with “Patric Young Beard Night,” finished the game with 10 points and nine rebounds — just one rebound shy of his first double-double of the year.
The senior center said the rebounding efficiency of the Gators is vital if they want to play the up-tempo style of basketball that Donovan expects.
“Whenever you can be really physical and a team has to focus more on their defensive rebounding (and) we’re being a problem for them on the offensive glass, it’s going to wear their bigs out,” Young said.
“And in doing that, we’re playing more our style of play of trying to get up and down the floor, playing hard and like coach Donovan said, ‘Being dogs.’”
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @jczupryn
Michael Frazier II prepares to shoot during Florida’s 72-50 win against Georgia on Tuesday in the O’Connell Center. Frazier finished with a career-high 21 points.
