After watching their team beat its arch rivals in Tallahassee on Sunday night, Gator men’s basketball fans probably felt like they supported the state’s No. 1 college basketball team.
Unfortunately for UF, Central Florida had other ideas.
For the first time in 10 meetings between the two schools, the Knights came out victorious against the Gators, defeating them, 57-54, on Wednesday night at the new Amway Center in Orlando.
And if Florida defenders felt as helpless as Craig Ehlo in 1989 covering his father, it is because Marcus Jordan led the way.
Showing a step-back jumper early and a spectacular drive through the lane and bucket late, Jordan scored a team-high 18 points to sink the Gators.
“I just wanted to be aggressive,” Jordan said.
He was, to the agony of No. 16/18 UF (5-2), which only had three players (Vernon Macklin, Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton) score more than two points.
Macklin did his best to keep the Gators, who trailed most of the second half, in the contest.
The 6-foot-10 senior center could not be guarded by the Knights (6-0) in the paint. He wound up with a game-high 20 points on 10-of-12 shooting to go along with a team-high eight rebounds. However, after rebounding the missed front end of a 1-and-1 by UCF forward Keith Clanton with less than four seconds remaining, Macklin threw an errant pass to Boynton that flew out of bounds and sealed the Knights’ win.
But that wasn’t the reason Florida lost.
In addition to the play of Jordan, the defeat can fall on UF shooting 10-of-18 from the foul line (no fault of Walker and Boynton, who were a combined 8-for-8), a bad night for hometown kid Chandler Parsons (two points on 1-of-5 shooting and 0-for-6 free throws, including an airball) and fellow senior forward Alex Tyus (zero points on 0-for-5 shooting), 14 turnovers (to seven by Central Florida) as well as the complete lack of scoring outside of Macklin, Walker and Boynton.
The victory was one of the biggest of the young head coaching career of former Gator assistant Donnie Jones, who is in his first year at UCF after three at Marshall. And next week, the Knights could find themselves ranked.
“It’s a huge win,” Jordan said. “We were kind of the underdog. They came to our town, and they had all the fans and everything, but we just wanted to come and play our game. (If we did that) we knew we could take it.”
FREE THROWS
*It’s a shame Parsons didn’t have a better game. The native of Casselberry (just outside of Orlando) had friends and family use 70 tickets provided by the senior forward on Wednesday night. It went so poorly, he was even heckled the rest of the game by fans after airballing a free throw in the first half.
*After being the standout in UF’s victory against Florida State, supersub Erik Murphy had a quiet night in Orlando. Playing 17 minutes (same as in Tallahassee), Murphy finished with two points, four rebounds, two blocked shots and a steal. That said, he was the most productive of UF’s three primary power forwards, as Alex Tyus and Will Yeguete combined for no points, six rebounds and a blocked shot playing 29 minutes between them.
*Jordan said he and his father would be breaking down the game film together soon after the contest was over.
PATTON’S PICKS
Gator Grade: C- (and that’s with an “A” for Vernon Macklin)
Gator Player of the Game: It felt like Vernon Macklin could have scored 50 against UCF. In a mere 20 minutes he made 10-of-12 shots for 20 points and eight rebounds. Both were team highs, and the points were a game-high. Imagine if he was fully healthy.
Opposing Player of the Game: Sophomore guard Marcus Jordan has improved a great deal from his freshman year, where he averaged just a bit more than eight points. Aside from a stretch midway through the second half where Kenny Boynton stuck to the 6-3 guard pretty well and limited his shots, Jordan was extremely difficult to guard. He finished with 18 points (on 6-of-11 shooting and 5-of-6 free throws), three rebounds, three assists and a steal.
Play of the Game: Late in the second half, Jordan had the ball at the top of the key. He did two different crossovers followed by a spectacular reverse layup that was reminiscent of someone…
Stat of the Game: Florida and UCF combined to make just 20-of-34 foul shots (10-of-18 by the Gators).
Next up: The Gators will play American University (5-2) at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The Eagles have lost two straight after a 5-0 start that included an 82-72 victory at Florida Atlantic, a team UF beat 79-66 last week.