When the going got tough, Kenny Boynton got going.
The freshman guard scored 22 points, nine of which came from the free-throw line, as Florida (2-0) overcame a sluggish first half and won a physical game 69-49 against Georgia Southern on Wednesday night in the O’Connell Center.
Boynton’s game-high scoring output came on 6-of-12 shooting from the field, including a 1-of-6 performance from 3-point range, but he got to the free-throw line 13 times against the foul-prone Eagles (1-2).
“I think he’s got a little bit of that take-over mentality,” UF coach Billy Donovan said. “He wants to go get it, and he wants to go do it. I like that he’s like that. It’s important he’s like that for our team, then we can try to channel him the right way.”
Georgia Southern’s physical play kept Florida off its game early on, and UF took just a one-point lead into halftime. But Boynton dropped in 15 in the second half, when the Gators outscored the Eagles 43-24.
“I think we responded well to the physical play,” Boynton said. “All we’ve got to do is keep knocking down free throws, and that’s what we did today.”
Boynton and the Gators took advantage of the Eagles’ tight defense by drawing 32 fouls and getting to the free throw line 43 times, making up for their 2-for-16 performance from beyond the arc and 34 percent shooting for the game.
Overall, Donovan described his team’s offense Wednesday night as “pretty woeful.”
“That was part of the reason we probably didn’t shoot as good of a percentage from the field,” Donovan said. “It just seemed like we were shooting free throws about every other possession.”
Donovan attributed some of his team’s first-half struggles to its exhibition and season-opening victories, which the Gators won by an average of 43 points. Georgia Southern had played Florida close the last two years — contests UF won by a combined 10 points — and the Eagles’ athleticism made it hard for the Gators to get into a rhythm early on.
“When you have a lopsided win like that, it’s hard to get into a game like we were in today,” Donovan said. “We needed a game like this. We didn’t need a 35-, 40-point win.”
To close out the game, Donovan went to an athletic, more experienced lineup of point guard Erving Walker, Boynton, forward Chandler Parsons, forward Dan Werner and power forward Alex Tyus. That meant taking out junior center Vernon Macklin, who put up 15 points and grabbed seven boards in just 19 minutes of play.
In the final 7:15, that lineup turned a seven-point lead into a 20-point victory that made the game seem like more of a blowout than it actually was.
In addition to wanting some of his veterans in the game along with Boynton, Donovan also made the decision to put in a team that could match up man-to-man with the Eagles and take away their 3-point shooting, usually the key factor when smaller schools pull off big upsets.
“The 3-point line concerned me when we had a seven- or eight-point lead,” Donovan said. “A couple of threes, then the next thing you know, you’ve got a one- or two-point lead.”
