No. 11 Florida ousts Arkansas-Little Rock 86-56

No. 11/12 Florida Gators basketball (2-1) absolutely dominated the second half of Saturday afternoon’s contest, outscoring the visiting Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans (0-2) by 30 points in the final 20 minutes of the game to pick up a 86-56 victory at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL.

OnlyGators.com breaks down the Gators’ second win of the 2013-14 season with The Fastbreak and a Rapid Recap.

THE FASTBREAK

It was over when: Florida piggybacked on its most significant scoring stretch of the game (see below) with a 17-6 run that gave the Gators a 79-53 lead with 4:12 remaining in the contest. UF hit three triples during the run and made a comeback absolutely impossible.

Significant stretch: The aforementioned 17-4 run started midway through the second half and concluded with 8:52 to play. Senior forward Casey Prather scored eight of the 17 points during the stretch, which spotted Florida a 60-43 advantage.

Standout stat: At the final buzzer, the Gators outrebounded the Trojans 40-36, gaining a 10-board advantage in the second half. UALR had won the battle off the glass 22-15 in the first half, which means UF made a concerted effort coming out of the break to take away opportunities from the visitors and create more scoring chances for the home team.

Perfect play: Right after the ball was in-bounded with 9:02 left in the game, freshman point guard Kasey Hill picked the pocket of DeVonte Smith, grabbing a turnover and immediately converting it into a layup to put his team ahead by 15.

Prominent player: Prather had a fantastic all-around game (27 points on 10-of-11 shooting, five rebounds, five assists), but redshirt sophomore F Dorian Finney-Smith showed out in a big way on Saturday. In his first game ever as a member of the Florida basketball program, Finney-Smith scored 17 points, grabbed nine boards and went 3-for-4 from beyond the arc. He gave those watching a glimpse of what is likely to come from the athletic and productive forward this season.

What it means: Though the victory was expected entering the contest, the Gators were terrible in the first half and actually tied at 27 with the Trojans at the break. Florida going full-throttle in the second 20 minutes, outscoring its opponent by 30 points and playing like a completely different team while doing so, may very well have been the switch that UF has needed to be flipped this season.

Next up: Florida will host Southern for the second game of a three-game homestand on Monday at 7 p.m. The game will air on Sun Sports within the state of Florida.

RAPID RECAP

Florida and Arkansas-Little Rock traded leads in the first half with the Gators never breaking away in the first 20 minutes. UF started 1-of-6 from three and 6-of-14 from downtown and even got outrebounded 22-15 by UALR in the early going.

Prather scored six of Florida’s first eight points in the second half, putting his team up six. He followed that effort up by scoring eight more points as part of the Gators’ integral 17-4 run that gave Florida a 60-43 lead with 8:52 remaining.

UF piled on ULAR from there, outscoring the visitors by 30 points in the second half and watching as a number of players stepped up when it mattered the most.

Along with Prather and Finney-Smith showing out, Hill finished with 14 points, six assists and five steals – all new career-highs – and senior center Patric Young contributed 10 points along with eight boards.

The Gators covered their spread by 10 points and would be a good option at some of these top online betting sites.