Billy Donovan has rarely enjoyed any of his 40 minutes stays in the Carrier Dome.
After losing four away games to Syracuse as a player at Providence nearly 25 years ago, Donovan finally had another chance Friday night – this time as No. 10 Florida’s coach – to grab a memorable victory in the massive arena.
“It’s a hard place to win,” Donovan said. “I spent four years in college in the Big East and never won up here one time.”
In their first true road trip to Syracuse, N.Y., the task didn’t prove any easier for the Gators (5-2), as they fell 72-68 to the fourth-ranked Orange (7-0) before an announced crowd of 24,459.
Junior guard Kenny Boynton led all scorers with 22 points and senior Erving Walker added 17 but Florida couldn’t overcome a season-high 20 turnovers against Syracuse’s patent, 2-3 defense.
The giveaways led to 19 points for the Orange, who also had a 40-33 advantage on the boards, and became the first team to outrebound the Gators this year.
“When you play against a top-five team on the road, the margin for error is so small,” Donovan said. “You look at those things that could’ve hurt you before the game, like I mentioned it was the turnovers and the rebounding, and those were the two things that kind of hurt us.”
While Florida was already without injured forward Erik Murphy, starting center Patric Young would also be limited after being hit with two first half fouls. In just 25 minutes on the court, he saw less time than any UF starter, which helped the Orange’s frontline open up a 17-10 advantage on the offensive glass.
With Young sitting out the last 11:30 of the opening half, Florida relied heavily on outside shooting. The Gators spent 14 of their 27 shots in the first half on 3-pointers, making just three of them.
“We really became one-dimensional on offense just because we didn’t have a presence at the basket,” Donovan said.
Florida was down by four points at the break, despite 37 percent from the field. Syracuse would go through its own shooting woes on a 3-for-17 shooting night behind the arc.
Though the Gators, led by Boynton and Walker’s combined 9 of 19 effort from three, raised their shooting percentage to 50 percent in the second half, they allowed the Orange to maintain their lead with 21 free throw attempts.
The 17 points Syracuse scored at the charity stripe helped open up a nine point advantage with 2:36 left to play, which Florida could only chip to seven until Walker hit a long three at the buzzer.
“Our guys battled and fought back; they really thought they had a chance to win the game,” Donovan said. “It’s a game we can build off of. We’ve played two, top-five teams on the road.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
