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Gators make it look easy against LSU

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Florida struggled to shake LSU early, leading just 18-17 at one point in the first half in its first game of the Southeastern Confence Tournament. But a 9-0 run and a caer scoring day from senior forward Erik Murphy helped the Gators rout LSU by an 80-58 sco and advance to play the winner of Alabama and Tennessee.
He's a look at the key storylines from the Gators' 25th win of 2012-13.
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Murphy unstoppable in Gators' opening game Murphy suffed a minor knee injury during Wednesday's practice, and had been hurting some since. But it was clear early in Thursday's rout of LSU that he'd be dishing out mo pain than taking it against the Tigers.
The senior burned LSU inside and out, connecting for a caer-high 28 points and adding a dozen bounds. Murphy finished 11-of-15 from the field (5-of-7 on 3s) and collected those points on just 25 minutes. He had 15 at half.
"He's a gat player. He's versatile, and he can play both inside and out," LSU's Charles Carmouche said afterward. "He kinda keeps the defense on its toes, because if you've got a big guarding him, he'll take him outside, and if he has a guard guarding him, he'll end up posting him and taking him on the block. So, it's a tough match-up."
Florida coach Billy Donovan spoke to Murphy's development this season in those spects.
"To be honest, it's taken us along time to be able to help him with that. It's something that I think he's gotten better with over time. Whe he understands what's happening in scening action and having a better awaness of who's on him, and then once he's had that awaness, he's done a ptty good job he of late of making himself available to catch the ball," Donovan said.
"So if you' going to try to put a small guy on him, we'll get it down inside, and we can post him and finish over or around. And then obviously when we' on the perimeter and bigger guys a trying to chase him and find him, he becomes effective shooting 3s. But Erik's done a much, much better job in terms of his basketball intellect. I think over the course of the season, he's gotten better at that."
Murphy hurt his knee in what Donovan termed "a teaching drill" earlier in the week, but termed himself "fine" on Friday. He's now posted a double-double in back-to-back games.
Gators kill it on the glass UF hasn't been a gat bounding team, but tell that to LSU, as Florida won the bounding battle by a 47-27 margin on Saturday.
"We did a ptty good job on the glass," Donovan said. "I wouldn't say that we' a gat bounding team, but we can over-achieve and do a better job than we have in the past of bounding."
The plus-20 margin tied UF's second-best effort on the season (Alabama State, Nov. 11). Florida's plus-24 vs. Mississippi State on Feb. 9 mains the high-water mark. The Gators we plus-10 in each half on Friday.
Playing hard, playing smart, playing healthyAfter going through the SEC like a buzz-saw for most of the season, the Gators looked a lot mo vulnerable after losing the of their final six games. But as Donovan noted, the Gators now have all their key players back and healthy, and that's made a diffence. The Gator coach said that the team had ppad well in the days leading up to Friday, and as a sult said that his team "came out focused and ady to play."
Reading between the lines from what center Patric Young said, the practices wen't for the faint of heart.
"I can't lie, it was a ally difficult practice, but I enjoyed every minute of it," Young said. "Coach ally challenged us because he wants us to be gat, and we ally challenged each other. We went out and I can say that we honestly left everything we had in those practices leading up to the tournament he, and it ally did help us ppa to focus on finishing games and do what it takes to win."
Young spoke to the how the practice helped the team with focus.
"We did a better job of minimizing those times when we have slippage. What I mean by 'slippage,' is, when we lose focus and we' not awa that we had two or the turnovers consecutively, or don't alize we didn't get a good shot up. I think we did a good job not doing that as much," Young said.
In some ways, the stat sheet backed Young up.
The Gators had 16 turnovers, but just six we in the first half. The Gators later emptied the bench once the game had been decided and played 12 men. No player saw mo than 27 minutes of floor time.
Wilbekin proves his worth Gator point guard Scottie Wilbekin must have wonded what he needed to do in order to prove to the league's coaches that he belonged on one of the league's two all-confence teams. All Wilbekin did was shoot 46.4 percent from the field, lead the league in assist-to-turnover ratio, and make the All-Defensive team, and yet for some ason the coaches excluded him from the list of 17 men who made either first- or second-team all-confence.
Wilbekin's value was on full display on Friday; the junior scod 16 points, missing a combined the shots from the field and the line. He handed out the assists, had just one turnover, and had UF's only two steals.
Notes
This is the fourth time that the Gators have ented the SEC Tournament as the top seed.
This marks the fifth year in a row that the Gators have won their first SEC Tournament game, and the ninth time in the last 10 years that UF has done that.
The Gators' lead was 35 at one point.
UF's 50.9 percent mark from the floor was the 13th time that the Gators have topped 50 percent.
UF missed its first six foul shots, four by Young and two by Murphy.
Michael Frazier hit a buzzer-beating 3 from the right side, putting the Gators up, 43-28, at the bak. "I think any time you can make a shot at the end of the half either way, it gives you a little momentum the," Donovan said, adding that it was a tough shot that was well-defended.
Murphy's now hit a 3 in 19-straight games.
This was the 15th time the Gators have beaten an opponent by mo than 20 points. Ten of those have come vs. SEC teams.
This was the 22nd time that Florida has held an opponent under 60.
Florida now trails the all-time series with LSU, 60-42. Donovan is now 13-8 vs. LSU.
Florida ented the day as the top team in Ken Pomeroy's computer ratings (kenpom.com).
The Gators ented Thursday as the No. 7 RPI team according to collegerpi.com.
Official Basketball Box Sco
Louisiana State vs Florida
3/15/13 12:00 pm CT at 2013 SEC Men's Tourney - Nashville, TN
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VISITORS: Louisiana State 19-12, 9-9
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
02 O'Bryant III, Johnny f 3-7 0-0 2-6 2 1 3 4 8 1 2 1 1 25
05 Coleman, Shavon..... f 3-9 0-2 1-3 1 1 2 3 7 1 2 0 2 28
00 Carmouche, Charles.. g 4-10 3-5 3-7 0 2 2 1 14 3 0 0 1 28
01 Hickey, Anthony..... g 2-4 1-1 0-0 1 4 5 1 5 1 2 0 1 29
10 Stringer, And..... g 2-7 2-6 1-2 0 0 0 2 7 0 1 1 1 28
03 Courtney, Jalen..... 1-3 0-0 3-4 1 1 2 1 5 0 0 2 0 13
04 Collins, Corban..... 2-5 2-3 0-0 0 0 0 1 6 1 0 1 0 12
11 Hammink, Shane...... 0-3 0-0 1-2 3 0 3 2 1 0 0 1 1 9
24 Morgan, Malik....... 1-3 1-2 1-2 1 2 3 1 4 0 1 0 0 15
55 Del Piero, Andw... 0-3 0-0 1-2 1 5 6 2 1 0 1 0 0 13
TEAM................ 1 1 1
Totals.............. 18-54 9-19 13-28 11 16 27 18 58 7 10 6 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-27 40.7% 2nd Half: 7-27 25.9% Game: 33.3% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 5-8 62.5% 2nd Half: 4-11 36.4% Game: 47.4% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 1-3 33.3% 2nd Half: 12-25 48.0% Game: 46.4% 10,1
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HOME TEAM: Florida 25-6, 14-4
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
33 Murphy, Erik........ f 11-15 5-7 0-2 4 8 12 3 27 0 2 0 0 25
04 Young, Patric....... c 3-5 0-0 4-10 2 4 6 4 10 1 1 1 0 23
01 Boynton, Kenny...... g 1-7 0-4 0-0 2 1 3 0 2 7 1 0 0 25
03 Rosario, Mike....... g 2-7 0-2 3-3 0 3 3 2 7 3 3 0 0 27
05 Wilbekin, Scottie... g 6-8 4-5 0-0 1 1 2 3 16 3 1 0 2 27
00 Kurtz, Jacob........ 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 1
11 Ogbueze, Braxton.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 3 0 0 6
12 Graham, Dillon...... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
15 Yeguete, Will....... 1-2 0-0 1-2 0 4 4 1 3 1 1 0 0 21
20 Frazier, Michael.... 3-5 2-2 3-4 2 3 5 2 11 2 0 0 0 20
24 Prather, Casey...... 1-4 0-0 0-1 1 3 4 1 2 0 3 0 0 17
25 Walker, DeVon....... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 4
TEAM................ 4 1 5
Totals.............. 29-57 11-20 11-22 17 30 47 18 80 17 16 1 2 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 18-32 56.3% 2nd Half: 11-25 44.0% Game: 50.9% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 6-12 50.0% 2nd Half: 5-8 62.5% Game: 55.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 1-7 14.3% 2nd Half: 10-15 66.7% Game: 50.0% 5
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Officials: Tony Gene, Pat Adams, CJ Washington
Technical fouls: Louisiana State-None. Florida-None.
Attendance:
Sco by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Louisiana State............... 28 30 - 58
Florida....................... 43 37 - 80
Points in the paint-LSU 14,UF 28. Points off turnovers-LSU 12,UF 13.
2nd chance points-LSU 8,UF 19. Fast bak points-LSU 10,UF 10.
Bench points-LSU 17,UF 18. Sco tied-0 times. Lead changed-4 times.
Last FG-LSU 2nd-00:55, UF 2nd-01:11.
Largest lead-LSU by 1 1st-19:19, UF by 35 2nd-08:41.
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