Patric Young stars as Florida Gators beat Arizona Wildcats in an overtime thriller - NCAA Basketball
On Wednesday night, in what was a complete nail biter, 40 minutes proved insufficient to decide a winner between Florida Gators and Arizona Wildcats.
In the extended period, the two sides again slugged it out in the first couple of minutes, however a spate of free throws by Erving Walker (five in total) eventually helped Gators onto another win and in doing so, they improved
their record to 6-2.
Although, Walker scored the most crucial points in the game, it was all about Patric Young tonight.
Young scored his career high 25 points including 12 for 15 from the arc and pulled down 10 rebounds as the Gators carved out a 78-72 win at the Stephen O Connell Center.
Walker pounded 14 for Gators while Mike Rosario, who came off the bench late, also chipped in with 10.
Jesse Perry was the most outstanding player for Wildcats and accumulated 23 points including 3 for 5 from the three-point range and 4 for 6 from the charity stripe. Kyle Fogg was also aggressive and added 19 on 4 for 6 from the
downtown; Kevin Parrom sealed 13 points.
The top scorers from both sides fittingly opened the scoring for their respective teams. In the next few minutes, both teams displayed rock solid defence and held each other from scoring freely. Gators were ahead by 1 point 7-8
in the 8th minute, but back to back 3’s from Mike Rosario and Erik Murphy helped them in boosting the lead and get in a dominating position.
The Gators stayed ahead for most of the time in the frame; however Wildcats kept on showing good fight from the other end and did not allow the deficit to go out of control. With a minute remaining in the frame, Perry and Parrom
brought Wildcats neck to neck at 32-31. Then, in the last few seconds, Parrom drilled a jumper to finish the half in favour of Wildcats 33-32.
The next half started with two downtown strikes from both ends.
Neither team managed to dominate the half for next few minutes as momentum kept on shifting from one side to the other. Midway through the frame, The Wildcats bolted a 14-7 spurt to change the momentum as they got ahead by 7 points,
55-48.
Kenny Boynton, Walker and Young then scored quickly to get their team back in the game and the scores got levelled at 59. They continued the onslaught to make it 66-63 in Gators’ favour with just few seconds remaining, however
three timely free throws by Solomon Hill made it 66 all and the game went in to over time.
In the O.T., it was all Walker as the Gators raced to a win.
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