Quite a few highly-seeded teams have come out today, messed around, and gotten into a lot of trouble. The Florida Gators are not one of those teams. The second-seeded Gators opened up scoring 10 of the first 11 points and expanded their lead throughout the first half against the #15 seed UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, taking a 43-19 advantage to the locker room in their Southeast Regional second-round matchup.
The Gators shot 58% in the first half and held the Gauchos to only 27%. Florida’s balanced first-half attack was led by Kenny Boynton with 9 points, Chandler Parsons and Erving Walker with 8 points apiece, and Alex Tyus and Patric Young each adding 6. Florida had 15 assists on 18 made field goals in the first half, led by eight dimes from Parsons.
Orlando Johnson (7 points) and James Nunnally (6 points) led the UCSB offense, but the team committed 10 turnovers and was outrebounded 19-9. The Gauchos will need a dramatic turnaround in the second half to keep their season from coming to an end.