The Florida Gators began the 2016-17 basketball season in an exhibition game against Eckerd College on Wednesday night. After a rough start to the game, the Gators came back to dominate in the second half to beat the Tritons 91-63.
Florida was shaky to say the least in the first half of play. Shooting at just 39.3 percent with 10 costly turnovers, four of which were given up by junior center John Egbunu.
Defense has been a struggle for the Gators in the first few weeks of practice and proved to still be a weak spot in the exhibition. Eckerd made 14-of-26 first half shots for a 53.8 percent average.
The Gators went into halftime trailing their Division II opponent 34-33.
Some signs of life were finally shown in the second half. The Gators scored 58 points to finish the game (to just 29 by the Tritons) and had six players in double-figures.
Egbunu led the pack with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Junior forward Devin Robinson was just behind him with 13 points and eight rebounds on the night. Florida went on a 17-0 scoring run at one point in the second half.
The Gators forced 24 turnovers, shot 75.9 percent from the foul line, and finished the game with a 47.8 field goal percentage.
The 91-63 win was Florida’s 26th consecutive exhibition win. While it doesn’t have much impact moving forward, the game did give the Gators a chance to evaluate some issues before the regular season begins in just over two weeks. There is a lot to work on before Florida heads back to Jacksonville to open up the season.
Coming Up Next: The Gators will play a closed scrimmage against UAB on Saturday in Destin, Fla. That will be the final warm-up before the season gets underway on November 11 at Veterans Memorial Arena as Florida will take on Florida Gulf Coast at 7:30 p.m.
Florida Gators basketball player Canyon Barry at media days 2016- GatorCountry photo taken by David Bowie