Florida lost its leading scorer Tuesday night.
With 13:23 left in the game the crowd went silent as senior Kenny Boynton was charged with a foul while attempting a layup and fell to the ground. While he was laying face-first on the floor, team trainers came out to the court to assess his injury.
Despite limping off the court with little help, Boynton suffered a sprained left ankle.
“Everyone just stopped doing whatever they were doing, and it was just silent,” forward Will Yeguete said. “He took a while to get up, and it was weird because [Boynton] usually gets up right after he gets down.”
Coach Billy Donovan added: “I could’ve put him back in the game. The trainer obviously didn’t want me to because of the score. Our feeling right now is that (he) may be missing tomorrow’s practice, but should not be out for any games.”
Although the No. 7 Gators (4-0) struggled on offense, Patric Young led the defense en route to a 58-40 win against Savannah State (3-3). Young tied a game-high 13 points in addition to racking up 11 rebounds and six blocks.
Tuesday night was Young’s second double-double of the season. His first came on Nov. 11 in Florida’s 84-35 win against Alabama State.
“The one thing I admire and respect about him is I think Patric felt like after the first three games that he should be playing at a higher level,” Donovan said. “I thought Patric was really alert (tonight). He played hard, he played with passion, (and) he played with energy.”
During the Gators’ otherwise dull offensive night, which featured 30.8 percent field goals made in the first half, Boynton had only five points and one rebound before leaving the game early. Florida finished by making 17 of 48 from the field.
“I thought this was a game where offensively we were not great tonight at all,” Donovan said. “If we did not defend like we defended the whole entire game, we would’ve been in a dog fight all the way to the end. It was our offense, to be honest with you, that put a lot of pressure on our defense.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
