Florida shot miserably against Georgia Southern on Wednesday night, but the Gators opened up a 20-point win in the second half thanks to their defense.
The Eagles shot 33 percent from the field and 22 percent from the 3-point line, as UF outscored Georgia Southern 43-24 in the second half.
Coach Billy Donovan said the Gators will be able to take more away from their strong defensive effort than a crowd-pleasing blowout that might not force the team to work as hard.
“Yeah, you’re concerned a little bit, you want to shoot the ball better,” Donovan said. “But it’s a reinforcement right now they can see very, very clearly, ‘Wow, we ended up winning by 20 points and look what we shot from the field and the 3-point line.’ Hopefully that inspires them to get even more intense and excited.”
Freshman guard Kenny Boynton scored a team-high 22 points but was more proud of the team’s defensive performance than anything else.
“To tell you the truth, all of us are satisfied with the win, as a team we played great defense,” Boynton said. “The shots are going to fall. All we got to do is keep our defensive effort up, and I think we’re really good.”
The Gators weren’t much better than the Eagles offensively, shooting 34 percent from the field and 2 for 16 (12.5 percent) from beyond the arc.
But Florida’s ability to clamp down on defense, get out in transition (10 fast-break points) and get to the free-throw line (43 attempts) neutralized any shooting woes.
“We’re tough to beat if we do all three of those things consistently,” forward Chandler Parsons said. “It starts with defense. After that, you have to end each possession with a rebound.”
Parsons led the team with 12 rebounds, including seven on the defensive end.
After struggling to keep opponents off the offensive glass in their two exhibition games, the Gators allowed only nine offensive rebounds to the Eagles and outrebounded them 51-33 on the night.
Donovan said that a poor shooting night like this one could have spelled disaster for his teams in the past two years, but he was encouraged to see his team find a way to win convincingly without any shots falling.
Freshman point guard Erving Walker, who shot 0 for 10, said this type of game and new attitude will pay dividends as the season progresses.
“When our shots aren’t falling, at least we have defense to fall back on, that’s what we understand,” Walker said. “We were last in the (Southeastern Conference) in that last year and we still won nine games last year, so hopefully if we correct that we can win 11 or 12.”
