GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Earlier in the week, Florida coach Billy Donovan stopped practice during a five-on-five drill that emphasized defense, boxing out and rebounding. Donovan turned to freshman swingman Bradley Beal and called him out.
"Two offensive rebounds in SEC play, Brad Beal!" Donovan yelled. "How's that possible?"
He paused for effect.
"Two!"
So it must have done Donovan's soul some good when, on UF's first possession of Thursday night's home game against South Carolina, center Erik Murphy missed a jumper, but forward Will Yeguete grabbed the board and put up another shot.
That one missed, too. But there was Beal, snaring the rebound and sticking it back for the first points of the game.
The play was a tone-setter. Good thing, too. Against the Gamecocks, the 12th-ranked Gators shot cockeyed most of the game, but rebounded well enough and hit free throws down the stretch well enough for a sixth straight victory, a workmanlike 74-66 win before 10,003 at the O'Connell Center.
Kenny Boynton, averaging just 11.7 points in Southeastern Conference games, was the lone Gator to show up with a hot hand, pouring in 24 points, including 4-for-8 from 3-point range and 8-for-10 from the free-throw line. The rest of the Gators (18-4, 6-1) were a collective 16-for-46 overall and 3-for-20 from long distance.
"We got great looks and were satisfied with the looks we got," said senior point guard Erving Walker, who had 14 points, four rebounds and seven assists. "We're not going to have too many nights like that."
They might be able to get away with such nights against South Carolina (9-12, 1-6), but upcoming dates against No. 25 Vanderbilt at home Saturday and Tuesday at No. 1 Kentucky will be a different matter.
"I'm kind of happy it happened," Donovan said after his team's second-worst shooting night (37.3 percent) of the season. "We won the game, and it was a woeful shooting night for our team. We almost got caught because I didn't think we had great maturity and understanding with the things you can control."
What they did control was effort level. It had to be there to out-rebound South Carolina — which leads the league in rebounding defense — to the tune of 42-30, with 20 of those on the offensive end. UF came into the game averaging 6.5 offensive rebounds in SEC games.
Enter Beal, who finished with 17 points and a game-high 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. Five of those boards were on the offensive end, nearly tripling his SEC output and making a statement to his coach.
"He kind of got under my skin with that stuff," Beal said.
The Gators, all of them, returned the favor for Donovan late in the first half by building a 17-point lead 10 minutes into the game, only to let it dwindle to nine, 37-28, at the break.
"The same shots that we knocked down in the first . . . 12 to 14 minutes of the game were the same shots we could not buy (the rest of the game)," Donovan said. "I thought our guys got too focused on the shots they were missing, instead of playing the game and staying aggressive."
USC coach Darrin Horn praised both sides on that front.
"This is as good as we've been defensively all year," Horn said. "But that's arguably the best offensive team in the league."
Not on this night, it wasn't.
While Florida was shooting less than 35 percent in the second half (and 1-for-13 from the arc), the Gamecocks inched their way closer until a 3-pointer by South Carolina backup guard Brenton Williams with 50 seconds left made it a five-point game at 67-62.
From there, though, the Gators closed things out by making seven of eight free throws down the stretch, part of an impressive 18-for-21 showing from the line in the second half after making just five of 11 in the first.
"We missed 'em early, but we've got good shooters," Walker said. "We just have to step up to the line with confidence."
And to the offensive boards with a vengeance.
"I can't say any of them took really bad shots," Donovan said. "But I thought what won the game tonight (was) we did a really good job on the offensive glass."
He'd love to say that again this season. Over the next few days, ideally.
