FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Arkansas Razorbacks had no answers for Erving Walker Thursday night. The smallest man on the floor scored a career-high 27 points, hitting 5-6 on three-pointers, to lead the Florida Gators (13-5, 2-2 SEC East) to a 71-66 win over Arkansas (8-10, 1-2 SEC West) before a crowd of 14,173 at Bud Walton Arena.
Walker finished the game hitting 7-12 from the field, 8-8 from the foul line and added three rebounds, four assists and a steal. Equally impressive was Walker’s ballhandling. The 5-8 sophomore from New York went the entire game without a single turnover.
It was Walker’s cool play down the stretch that sparked the Gators to their first SEC road win of the season. In the final 6:04 of the game, Walker scored nine of Florida’s 15 points, hitting all four of his free throws and a dagger of a three-ball with 2:21 left to play.
With the score tied at 56-56 with a little more than six minutes to play, Walker took the game over. His two free throws with 6:04 left gave the Gators the lead for good at 58-56. He saved Florida’s next possession with an offensive rebound, then hit a floater in the lane to stretch the lead to four. Walker’s sharp pass to Vern Macklin on Florida’s next possession resulted in a dunk for a 62-56 lead. For good measure, he hit two more free throws with 19.6 seconds to go to make it a six-point, two possession game (70-64).
In the first half, Walker was Florida’s offense. Walker hit all four of his first half shots including three-three pointers and scored 15 of Florida’s 28 points at the break including the two that broke the deadlock with 3.5 seconds left to send the Gators into the locker with a 28-26 lead.
Walker’s hot hand saved the Gators because nobody else could hit in the first half. At the break, the rest of the team was only 4-24 from the field.
The Razorbacks led for most of the first half. They took their first lead of the game at 7-4 on a three-ball by Rotnei Clarke with 15:55 left. Their biggest lead of the half came at the 4:35 mark when Glenn Bryant hit the second of his two three-pointers to give Arkansas a 24-19 lead.
Florida outscored Arkansas, 9-2 the rest of the way with Walker scoring the final seven points of the half for the Gators, the last two with 3.5 seconds left.
The Gators carried the momentum of that final shot to take the halftime lead into the opening moments of the second half when they scored on back-to-back threes by Walker and Kenny Boynton to stretch the lead out to eight, 34-26.
Arkansas went on a 10-2 run to tie the game at 36-36 with 13:30 remaining on a stick back by Michael Washington. Florida surged back ahead by four (42-38) but Arkansas tied the game on two free throws by Marcus Britt with 10:54 to play.
After a Macklin dunk back after a missed layup gave the Gators a 44-42 lead, Courtney Fortson converted on the other end with a layup and free throw to give Arkansas its first lead since the1:56 mark in the first half at 45-44.
For the next 4:11, the game belonged to Arkansas sharpshooter Rotnei Clarke, the nation’s top three-point shooter. He scored all 11 Arkansas points including three three-pointers in a row as the Razorbacks surged to a 56-55 lead with 6:47 left.
But that’s where it ended for the Razorbacks. The Gators took over on the defensive end and they controlled the backboards while Walker took care of business on the offensive end to give Florida its second straight SEC win.
Florida shot only 35.5 percent (22-62) from the field and just 6-17 (35.3 percent) from the three-point line but the Gators made up for their deficiencies with an impressive 42-29 margin on the boards and by hitting 21-26 from the foul line.
Doing the work on the boards were Tyus and Chandler Parsons. Tyus snatched 12 rebounds and Parsons came up with 11. The Gators were particularly impressive on the offensive boards where they outrebounded Arkansas, 17-5.
Arkansas actually outshot the Gators. The Razorbacks were 23-52 from the field (44.2 percent) and 8-21 from the three-point line (38.1 percent), but they only got to the foul line 17 times and converted 12.
In addition to Walker, Boynton (13 points) and Tyus (12) finished in double figures. For Arkansas, Clarke led the way with 17 points while Fortston (he also had 11 assists) and Marshawn Powell each scored 14. Washington, who fouled out of the game with 11.2 seconds left, scored 11.
The Gators did a good job of protecting the basketball, turning the ball over only seven times.
The Gators have a quick turnaround on their hands as South Carolina comes to town Saturday for a 6 p.m. SEC game at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. Gators United for Haiti, the University Athletic Association and the Florida men’s and women’s basketball teams have joined forces to raise money and awareness for earthquake relief in Haiti at that game Saturday and at the women’s game Sunday with South Carolina at 1 p.m.
Information tables and pledge sheets will be available at the game. Student members of Gators United for Haiti will be at the entrances to the O’Connell Center with pledge forms and at the Alligator Alley (men’s game). The pledge forms are informational sheets about how to get involved in Haiti relief efforts and how to donate. No donations will be accepted at the games. Members of the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which is the overarching fund for the Haitian Relief Effort, will also be in attendance at the game to answer questions about the relief efforts in Haiti and how Gators fans can contribute.
Gators United for Haiti is a student-run philanthropic project, supervised and aided by the Florida administration. Their goal is to motivate students in the Gator Nation to raise $50,000 for Haiti relief efforts.
All students and student organizations are invited to be a part of the philanthropic project. So far, more than 70 student groups have signed up to help, including VISA, Club Creole, Student Government, STAAR, United Haitian Students of Florida, CaribSA, Alpha Phi Alpha, Association of Black Communicators, EBL, Iota Phi Theta, Hope for Haiti, FACES Modeling Troupe and the Black Student Union.
The project continues to evolve, adding new student organizations and opportunities to donate daily. As of Tuesday night, the project had collected more than $6,000.
The University Athletic Association announced this week it will match, up to $50,000, what students from Gators United for Haiti raise.
For more information on Gators United for Haiti and for events where you can donate, please visit http://gatorsunitedforhaiti.org/ or join the Facebook group.
FLORIDA 71, ARKANSAS 66
At Bud Walton Arena, Fayetteville, Ark.
FLORIDA (71)—Alex Tyus 3-11 5-6 11, Chandler Parsons 1-8 4-8 6, Vernon Macklin 4-7 0-0 8, Kenny Boynton 5-13 2-2 13, Erving Walker 7-12 8-8 27, Ray Shipman 2-4 0-0 4, Dan Werner 0-4 2-2 2, Erik Murphy 0-3 0-0 0. TOTALS 22-62 21-26 71.
Field-goal shooting: 22 of 62 for 35.5 percent. 3-point shooting: 6 of 17 for 35.3 percent (Walker 5-6, Boynton 1-7, Werner 0-2, Parsons 0-2). Free-throw shooting: 21 of 26 for 80.8 percent. Rebounds: 42 (Tyus 12, Parsons 11). Assists: 9 (Parsons 5, Walker 4). Blocked shots: 2 (Murphy 2). Steals: 5 (Boynton 2). Turnovers: 7 (Tyus 2, Boynton 2, Werner 2). Total fouls (fouled out): 17 (none).
ARKANSAS (66)—Marshawn Powell 7-10 0-0 14, Mike Washington 4-7 3-5 11, Courtney Fortson 4-12 5-6 14, Marcus Britt 0-3 2-2 2, Rotnei Clarke 6-12 0-0 17, Jemal Farmer 0-0 2-2 2, Glenn Bryant 2-4 0-1 6, Stef Welsh 0-3 0-0 0, Delvon Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Stephen Cpx 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 23-52 12-17 66.
Field-goal shooting: 23 of 52 for 44.2 percent. 3-point shooting: 8 of 21 for 38.1 percent (Clarke 5-9, Bryant 2-3, Fortson 1-4, Welsh 0-1, Britt 0-1, Washington 0-1, Powell 0-2). Free-throw shooting: 12 of 17 for 70.5 percent. Rebounds: 29 (Bryant 6, Washington 6). Assists: 13 (Fortson 11, Britt 2). Blocked shots: 6 (Powell 2). Steals: 2 (Britt, Johnson). Turnovers: 10 (Fortson 4, Britt 2). Total fouls (fouled out): 21 (Washington).
Halftime: Florida 28, Arkansas 26. Officials: Doug Sirmons, Antinio Petty, Pat Adams. Records: Florida 13-5, 2-2 SEC East; Arkansas 8-10, 1-2 SEC West. A–13,673.
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE
For the latest standings, click below:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/conferences/standings?confID=23
Thursday, Jan. 21
Florida 71, Arkansas 66
Saturday, Jan. 23
South Carolina at Florida, 6 p.m. (ESPN)
Mississippi State at Alabama, 12 p.m. (CBS)
Auburn at Vanderbilt, 12:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
Mississippi at Louisiana State, 12:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
Arkansas at Kentucky, 4 p.m. (SEC Network)
Tennessee at Georgia, 5 p.m. (FSN)
Tuesday, Jan. 26
Kentucky at South Carolina, 9 p.m. (ESPN)
Wednesday, Jan. 27
Georgia at Florida, 7 p.m. (CSS)
Vanderbilt at Tennessee, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
Louisiana State at Alabama, 8 p.m. (SEC Network)
Thursday, Jan. 28
Mississippi at Auburn, 8 p.m. (ESPNU)
Mississippi State at Arkansas, 8 p.m. (ESPN2)
Saturday, Jan. 30
Louisiana State at Mississippi State, 12:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
Alabama at Auburn, 3 p.m. (SEC Network)
Arkansas at Mississippi, 3 p.m. (SEC Network)
Vanderbilt at Kentucky, 4 p.m. (ESPN)
Georgia at South Carolina, 7 p.m. (FSN)
Sunday, Jan. 31
Florida at Tennessee, 1 p.m. (CBS)
WOMEN LOSE AT ALABAMA
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