Alabama Game Box Score MVG: Erik Murphy

[GatorJason]

Erik Murphy quietly made big plays throughout the game to lead the Gators in a hard fought 64-52 home victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide. Murphy led the Gators in scoring with 15 points to go with 8 boards, a steal and 2 blocks to earn 80 value credits. Casey Prather was the only Gator off the bench to score with 10 points and a team leading 9 rebounds to earn 65 credits. His weakside defense and quick feet helped slowdown an onslaught by Bama in the paint where they outplayed the Gators. Kenny "Junior" Boynton came off his career worst game at Tennessee to score 13 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists to earn 52 value credits. Kenny moved up to 2nd on the Gators all-time scoring list moving past Andrew Moten.

The Gators celebrated the return of Prather, Frazier and Yeguete to the court but Casey Prather was the only one who played with impact. Frazier was uncharacteristically 0-1 from the field and 0-2 from the line. Yeguete is still getting used to knee brace, pulling down only 1 rebound in 11 minutes of play.

The big story in the game were the enormous swings in momentum in the 2nd half. Alabama blitz krieged the Gators with a 14-4 run early in the 2nd half, led by their PG Trevor Releford, putting the Tide up by 8, 45-37. Then the Gators turned the game around with their defense, outscoring Alabama 27-7 in the last 12 minutes to close out the game for the victory. The key stat for the game was at the free throw line where the Gators were 22-26 compared to 4-10 for Alabama. This difference offset the poor offensive play by the Gators who had only 7 assists compared to 10 turnovers. Alabama also scored more points in the paint against the Gators than any team this season.

The Gators will have time to rest up as they play their next game at home against the 12-15 Vanderbilt Commodores

Box Score Value Leaders:
Murphy........80
Prather........65
Boynton..'....52

Click on this link to see all player value scores for this game

Jaggator posted gameday pictures.

Value Credits* are assigned as follows:
+5 credits for each Steal and Assist
+4 credits for each Point scored, Rebound and Block
.-5 credits for each Turnover
.-2 credits for each Field Goal Attempt
.-1 credit for each Free Throw Attempt

* Value Credits are based solely on Box Score data and do not reflect total game contributions by players

Alabama Game Official Box Score

The Gators next game will be against Vanderbilt on Wednesday, Mar 6th at 8:00. ESPN-850AM WRUF

[gatordavisl]

Once again, I enjoy the value credit system. I'm surprised about the result in this one. My eye ball credit system had Prather as the MVG.

[luciaboy]

prather did way more than expected especailly down the stretch. he was the MVG

[GatorJason]

Watching the game, I'd give more credit to Prather and Young than the stats suggest. Casey was too quick for the Bama big men and Patric made some big plays on offense and defense during Gator comeback.

It was good to see all the Gators do well on the freethrow line too. This was a different kind of victory than the Gators had all year except for the defense coming up big to close out the game. Great defense kept the Gators in the game when their outside shooting went to pot. (err. . . just a figure of speech there).

[oneatatime]

Murphy scored 9 quick points, but always seems to get that 2nd foul before the half which tends to limit his effectiveness the rest of the game

Prather played 24 minutes and was clearly the difference during our 26-6 to end the game

[iam4uf]

Murphy kept us in the game for 30 minutes, but Prather provided the performance & "it" factor that won the game imho.

[gatorbogey]

eye ball test was prather as mvp. when we needed a spark in that dismal part of the 2nd half it was prather - both ends of the court in, like, 4 consecutive possessions - he made the plays.

[67walkon]

Eye balls can be deceiving. Erik was solid the whole game. He scored, he rebounded, he played D and he even got a couple of blocks. Most excellent!

[Goooogators]

Good work.Shouldn't there be points for taking a flop?

[regurgigator]

I thought Boynton was critical down the stretch also. His defensive intensity and overplays helped disrupt Bama's offense out top. And, that steal, fast break, and sweet assist to Prather for the trailing layup was super nice!

[SmootyGator]

Originally Posted by Goooogators

Good work.Shouldn't there be points for taking a flop?

Agreed. Points should be awarded for drawing a charge. It's a talent, and it definitely helps the team. Blocks sometimes just go out of bounds and the other team still gets the ball, yet blocks still get points on the scale. Doesn't make sense to me.

[GatorJason]

Originally Posted by SmootyGator

Agreed. Points should be awarded for drawing a charge. It's a talent, and it definitely helps the team. Blocks sometimes just go out of bounds and the other team still gets the ball, yet blocks still get points on the scale. Doesn't make sense to me.

Agree. If it ever shows up in the boxscore, I'll award 5 credits for each drawn charge. None of the ones I saw were flops either. Prather gets run into and over each time. Between his concussions and drawn charges, we need to give him a nickname like Crash or Pong. He's good for at least one collision or on his back floor skid a game. Maybe that's why Billy limits his minutes because he thinks Casey couldn't survive 30+ minutes a game with the way he plays.