While nervous teammates dealt with first-game jitters, Dan Werner had the steady hand.
Werner was driving force behind No.19 UF's (1-0) 80-58 win against Toledo Friday night at the O'Connell Center during the opening round of the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic.
The junior seems to be becoming more of an offensive threat. He scored a team-high 19 points on the night.
"He's starting to do some things out there that he couldn't do last year," UF coach Billy Donovan said.
Werner, who struggled to find his stride offensively during his first to years in Gainesville, is coming into his own.
"Any time you can come out and make shots it's good, but that's not what I'm really worried about," he said. "I've been shooting the ball well in practice, so I knew they were going to fall."
Despite his strong performance on the offensive end of the floor, Werner struggled to protect the ball at times and committed three turnovers.
"That's one thing I really pride myself on- taking care of the ball. I had some really dumb mistakes. You just can't have that," Werner said.
With early foul trouble sidelining Alex Tyus and Kenny Kadji for most of the first half, Werner was forced to play a team-high 31 minutes. It's something Donovan said he would have rather not done.
"I probably played him too many minutes," Donovan said. "In the second half, I thought he struggled a little bit. He had a few turnovers .He could have been a little bit fresher."
The Rockets (0-1) gave the Gators all the could handle early on. They only trailed 28-25 with with 3:31 left in the first half.
Toledo's Jonathan Amos led the way scoring a game-high 22 points.
The Gators opened the second half with a 17-4 run and put to rest any notion of an upset.
Allan Chaney stepped in for Tyus and played well. His one-handed dunk and subsequent scream late in the first half brought fans to their feet.
"Allan Chaney gave us a terrific boost," Donovan said.
Chaney finished with 6 points off the bench.
The UF press caused problems for Toledo all night.
"I thought the difference in the game tonight was the pressure we applied and forcing points off of turnovers," Donovan said.
The Gators forced the Rockets to cough up the ball 25 times.
"You need depth when you're trying to full court press. You need to have guys coming off the bench who can help. Luckily we have that," Werner said.
The Gators will play Bradley at 2:15 Sunday afternoon at the O'Connell Center.
