NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) – Kenny Boynton matched his career high with 28 points on 8-for-10 shooting from 3-point range and No. 13 Florida used a 26-3 run spanning the halves to beat Yale 79-58 on Sunday night.
Will Yeguette had 14 points and Mike Rosario added 13 for the Gators (10-2), whose losses were to No. 3 Arizona and No. 25 Kansas State. The Gators shot 60 percent from the field for the game (30 for 50), including 9 of 17 from 3-point range.
Justin Sears had 15 points and Javier Duren added 14 for the Bulldogs (5-11), who have lost four of five.
Yale was hanging around for most of the first half, getting to 21-20 with 5:27 to play in the opening 20 minutes. Then came the run and it was a matter of Florida deciding how large a margin of victory it would be.
Florida’s 14-3 run to close the half made it 35-23, its largest lead until then. Yale missed six of seven shots in the run and had two turnovers.
That wasn’t the worst of it. The Gators scored the first 12 points of the second half, the run closing on a 3-pointer by Boynton that made it 47-23 with 18:17 to play. The Bulldogs, who had turnovers on four consecutive possessions in the run – all in the backcourt, called three timeouts within the first 5 minutes.
Florida, which played its starters until the final 2 minutes, kept its lead around 20 points for most of the second half.
You know it was a big game at the John J. Lee Amphitheater because all four balconies were full behind the baskets, including the one that is for standees only. What was missing was the Yale band, who like other students were on break. There were 10 NBA scouts, however, in the lower section next to where the band would have been.
After the opening flurry of turnovers by both teams – Yale’s didn’t include a missed alley-oop pass way above the rim like Florida’s did – the Gators had the 21-20 lead with 5:27 to play in the first half. That didn’t sit well with the Florida fans in attendance, the ones with some orange mixed in with the blue.
The Gator fans even got into a “chomp” with about 8 minutes to play.
The Yale fans, on the other hand were loving it early but there were several occasions where they moaned when the Bulldogs wouldn’t take advantage of numbers on the break. They also wanted more 3-point attempts but those are hard to come by with Florida’s size advantage on the wings.
Yale was 2 of 9 from 3-point range in the first half while the Gators were 2 of 6. But Florida shot 54.2 percent overall (13 of 24) while the Bulldogs hit 36 percent (9 of 25).
Florida’s Erik Murphy didn’t play because of bruised ribs. The 6-foot-10 senior missed a chance to play near his native South Kingstown, R.I., about a 2-hour drive from New Haven. Yeguette started in Murphy’s place.
The Gators are 7-2 all-time against Ivy League schools but this was their first time as a visitor. This series was a 2-for-1 so since Florida won 90-70 last season at Gainesville, the Bulldogs have one more trip to the O’Connell Center, which holds 12,633. Payne-Whitney Gym on Yale’s campus holds 2,532.
Florida was Yale’s home opponent between two Division III schools – Albertus Magnus, a 112-63 victory, and Oberlin on Saturday.
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