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No. 8 Florida routs Mississippi State

Jan 27, 2013 - 3:31 PM Starkville, MS (Sports Network) - Kenny Boynton led four Florida players in double figures with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and Erik Murphy netted 18 points and six rebounds, as No. 8 Florida rolled to its eighth straight victory Saturday taking down Mississippi State, 82-47.

Patric Young posted 13 points and six rebounds while shooting a perfect 6- of-6 from the field, and Scottie Wilbekin donated 13 points and nine assists for the Gators (16-2, 6-0 SEC), who remained unbeaten in conference play.

"I think they're playing better than anybody else in the nation," Mississippi State coach Rick Ray said. "They have the best players in the SEC, the most talent in the SEC, but their willingness to share the basketball is by far their best attribute."

Fred Thomas tallied 19 points and seven steals and Colin Borchert added 10 points for the Bulldogs (7-11, 2-4), who have lost four straight, all by double figures.

The Gators jumped out to an early 20-6 advantage less than eight minutes in after Boynton and Michael Frazier nailed back-to-back 3-pointers. Wilbekin's lay-in with 8 1/2 left before the break made it 31-8, before the visitors led comfortably at halftime, 41-19.

"We wanted to get a lead and keep it," Boynton said.

The Gators' onslaught continued into the second half. They led by as many as 36 and were never threatened by the struggling Bulldogs. Murphy's trey with 7:38 left in the contest made it 70-40 before Florida's substitutes finished out the game.

Florida connected on a season-high 14 3-pointers, while Boynton and Murphy each had four and Wilbekin had three.

Game Notes

The Gators finished with 44 rebounds, compared to 20 for MSU ... Florida shot 55.4 percent, including 14-of-31 from behind the arc ... Mississippi State shot 32.7 percent and a mere 3-of-15 from 3-point range ... Craig Sword and Gavin Ware added eight and 10 points, respectively, in the loss and were the only other Bulldogs to register at least one point ... MSU is the 10th opponent that UF has held to under 50 points this season.