Guards Kenny Boynton, Erving Walker lead Florida Gators men's basketball team to win

GAINESVILLE — There was a point at the end of the first half of Friday night's game against Troy when Florida sophomore guard Erving Walker was really kicking himself. He was 0-for-15 from the field, including the previous game.

"I was like … when is the next one (going to fall)?" Walker said. The answer came in the second half.

Walker scored 13 points in a 26-7 run to start the half to help the Gators defeat Troy 80-58 in front of 10,297 at the O'Connell Center in the second game of the Legends Classic.

"That's tough," Walker said. "You've got to stay strong-minded, because it's real frustrating. But it felt good to finally hit something."

Florida (3-0) trailed 32-31 at halftime after being outscored 11-4 in the final 4:56 and outrebounded 28-19. But with 11:50 remaining in the game, the Gators led by 11 and were plus-9 in rebounding.

And UF's shots began to fall, 47 percent in the second half after the Gators shot 33 percent in the first.

"Certainly for us it was a game of two halves," coach Billy Donovan said. "We struggled in a lot of ways. We didn't shoot it great, we didn't rebound the ball well, our defense was okay, but we didn't really have a lot going on either end of the floor.

"I felt Troy probably felt pretty good being up by one point at the half, and that concerned me. But our guys came out and played much better in the second half."

Troy (2-1) entered averaging more than 100 points. It shot 35.5 percent from the field and 18 percent from beyond the arc.

"It's difficult when you stop scoring, which is what happened to us in the second (half)," Troy coach Don Maestri said.

Florida freshman guard Kenny Boynton had a game-high 23 points; he and Walker combined for 12 rebounds.

Antonya English can be reached at english@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3389.