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Boynton, Gators take SEC title with Senior Night win over Vanderbilt

Mar 7, 2013 - 4:52 AM Gainesville, FL (Sports Network) - Kenny Boynton scored 15 points and Patric Young had 14 on 6-of-7 shooting to help No. 11 Florida cruise past Vanderbilt, 66-40, on Wednesday to win the SEC regular season title outright.

Boynton and fellow classmates -- Erik Murphy, who had 10 points and six rebounds, and Mike Rosario, who had five points -- helped Florida (24-5, 14-3) finish the season 15-0 at home, fittingly on Senior Night.

It's the program's third outright conference title under head coach Billy Donovan.

"One of the things that happens because of unbalanced schedules, conference expansion and the attention on March Madness and Selection Sunday, is a lot of people don't view conference championships as a great accomplishment," Donovan said. "It is an incredible accomplishment for our team considering the things that we have overcome."

Kedren Johnson was the only Vanderbilt player in double-figures with 15 points as the Commodores (13-16, 7-10) saw their three-game winning streak come to an abrupt end.

Johnson accounted for 13 straight points from the 5:32 mark of the first half to the 16:24 mark of the second, to bring the visitors within 29-19.

Florida only led, 40-29 with 11:39 remaining, though the home team quickly changed things. The Gators utilized a 16-3 surge, capped off by a Scottie Wilbekin trey which put the contest out of reach and made it 56-32 with just under seven minutes to play.

"We did a good job defending until about the eight-minute mark in the second half. Once we got frustrated from not hitting shots it translated to the defensive end," Johnson said.

Boynton's triple with less than three minutes remaining increased the edge to 66-38 and Florida never looked back.

The Gators jumped out to a 20-6 edge to start the contest and led at the break, 24-14, after a slow-paced first half.

Game Notes

Vanderbilt became the fourth Florida opponent this season to score 40 points or less ... Florida has won five of the last six in the series and is 14-3 all-time in Gainesville ... The victory marked Florida's fourth outright SEC title in school history (1988-1989, 2006-2007, 2010-2011) ... Dai-Jon Parker was Vanderbilt's next leading scorer with seven points and six boards ... Florida held a 26-12 advantage on points in the paint.