After 39 minutes spent mostly as an onlooker, Kenny Boynton decided it was his time to step up and guard Kentucky freshman Brandon Knight.
The Wildcats’ superstar had racked up a game-high 24 points working against Erving Walker and Scottie Wilbekin, and Boynton knew Knight would have the ball for the final possession.
With the Gators leading by two and 12.7 seconds remaining, Knight went the length of the floor, came off a screen and took a three that was just short, wrapping up a 70-68 win for Florida (18-5, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) on Saturday in front of a record O’Connell Center crowd.
“They tried to switch us but I said, ‘I’m gonna just guard him,’” Boynton said. “I just wanted to stay on him. I didn’t want him to get an easy foul … I just wanted to stay on my feet.”
Boynton had spent the majority of the game guarding junior DeAndre Liggins, who finished with only four points.
While Liggins was hampered by foul trouble, Knight was taking control with 17 second-half points, and Boynton understood he had to be the difference maker.
“I knew the type of player he is,” Boynton said of his former AAU teammate and high school rival. “We just wanted to disrupt him, disrupt what he had going on.”
Knight spent most of the second half playing 2-on-2 offense with freshman teammate Terrence Jones, and the duo combined to score 42 points for Kentucky (16-6, 4-4 SEC).
The talented pairing sparked a 17-3 run that gave the Wildcats a one-point lead and set up the dramatic finish.
“They just tried to isolate their best two players and they made some plays,” Walker said. “We made some defensive stops. All in all, I think both teams played a great game and we were lucky to come out with the win.”
The victory capped an excellent week for Florida, as it defeated both Vanderbilt and Kentucky — a pair of teams UF went 0-4 against a year ago.
It was an especially stellar week for senior forward Chandler Parsons, who followed Tuesday’s double-double with a 17-point, 12-rebound performance against the Wildcats.
Parsons also contributed a thunderous block and five assists without a turnover in a team-high 37 minutes, including all 20 of the second half.
“I thought he had an incredible game,” coach Billy Donovan said. “I don’t know since I’ve been here if I’ve ever played a guy 20 minutes in the second half. … I wanted to rest him, wanted to try to get him out of the game, but he was doing too many things.”
Free throw shooting was key in the win, as neither team led by more than three in the final seven minutes.
After struggling from the charity stripe for much of the year, Florida hit 18 of its 22 attempts on Saturday, including a pair by Walker with 1:51 remaining that gave the Gators a lead they would never relinquish.
“That was huge for us,” Walker said. “I know we’ve been struggling at the line for weeks and weeks, but the one thing about competition is it changes each day. One day we could be up, one day we could be down, so we just gotta keep focusing and take advantage of free points.”
