Ben Bornstein, ESPN Radio

Patric Young came off the bench to score 12 points and electrified the crowd with a couple of thunderous dunks that fired-up the 12,045 fans that gathered in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center to see the Gators dump Mississippi State 69-57.

Mississippi State dropped to 17-5, 4-3 in the Southeastern Conference play.

Will Yeguete started the game in place of Young and did an excellent job on defense. Yeguete’s job was to contain the Bulldog’s big men, Renardo Sidney and Arnett Moultrie. Sidney was limited to five points on the game while Moultrie was able to score 12. That also happened to be the team-high for Mississippi State. The Gators not only played strong, physical defense, they were able to shoot the ball well from the floor. They controlled the tempo of the game and limited turnovers, committing only five compared to MSU’s 15.

Kenny Boynton did not have one of his better offensive games, finishing with only two points.

“I talked to Kenny after the game and told him I was proud of him,” head coach Billy Donovan said. “Two years ago he would have shut down and not responded as well as he did today.” However, Boynton found other ways to contribute to the win by playing hard-nosed defense on Dee Bost, who is a big playmaker for the Bulldogs. Boynton also had five assists while not turning the ball over. Erving Walker was finding it hard to make a shot tonight but he did end up with 10 points as well as four assists, one steal, and no turnovers. Yeguete only contributed four points, but also grabbed seven rebounds and took a charge in the first half to get the Gators fired up.

The Gators found their “X-Factor” in Erik Murphy tonight. He was 4 of 7 from the arc and 5-9 from the field. He had 14 points and even had a block to deny Mississippi State an easy bucket. Mike Rosario wasn’t as efficient tonight as he would have liked, but he did have a highlight play when he bounced the ball off Renardo Sidney’s back on an in-bounds pass to lay it in himself. He also hit a three to finish the game with five points.

Bradley Beal is really coming into his own as he had a game-high 19 points on 6 of 9 shooting from the floor and went a perfect 4-4 from the charity stripe.

“It’s mainly just a mental approach to it”, Beal said about defending bigger opponents. “I just can’t get down on myself and think that just because they are bigger than me that they can take advantage of me. You just have to play hard and play smart.” That’s what he has been doing all season and has only been improving the last few weeks.

Florida (17-4, 5-1)  has been doing a good job of limiting opponents from the field and kept the Bulldogs to 43.8% from the field while they shot about 48% themselves. The Gators may have had the smaller lineup but they were able to score in the paint twice as much as Mississippi State. That’s a 28-14 advantage and the Gators were able to do that while getting out-rebounded 34-26. The biggest factor for the Gators was having 15 assists on 27 field goals while making the Bulldogs turn the ball over 14 times. A few of those turnovers came on charges taken by Yeguete, Rosario, and Young which allowed the Gators to distance themselves and take a solid lead.

The Gators will play another Thursday-Saturday series with South Carolina and Vanderbilt this week. Both games will be in the O’Connell Center, where the Gators won’t have to worry about any flights getting delayed or redirected. They will have the rest they need and will be able to go hard in practice this week to prepare for the games.

Ben Bornstein is a second year Telecommunications major at the University of Florida. He covers the Gators for ESPN Radio (Gainesville/Ocala). You can follow him on twitter at  @BOOMSTEIN33. E-mail Ben at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it