Final
No. 11 Florida cruises past Arkansas-Little Rock
Nov 17, 2013 - 3:15 AM Gainesville, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Casey Prather poured in a game-high 27 points to go with five rebounds and five assists to lead No. 11 Florida to an 86-56 rout of Arkansas-Little Rock in the Global Sports Challenge.Dorian Finney-Smith chipped in with 17 points and nine boards off the bench and Kasey Hill added 14 points, six assists and five steals for the Gators (2-1), who will face Southern on Monday.
Patric Young had 10 points and eight rebounds in the win.
Will Neighbour scored 21 points and James White added 16 points and nine rebounds for the Trojans (0-2), who will face Middle Tennessee on Monday.
Florida couldn't shake Arkansas-Little Rock throughout the first half.
Prather's fast break layup with 7 1/2 minutes remaining gave the Gators a 17-12 lead before a Finney-Smith trey a minute later made it 20-14.
Neighbour's three-point play pulled the Trojans within two, 22-20, with just under five minutes remaining.
Little Rock stayed within striking distance until a White jumper and a Neighbour triple gave the Trojans a 27-25 lead. Hill, though, nailed a jumper at the end of the half to tie things up at 27-27.
The Gators opened the second half with a 12-6 run and never looked back.
"We did a much better job on the glass, offense, everything else. More importantly we finally got our assists up," Florida head coach Billy Donovan said of his team's performance in the second half.
After Neighbour cut the lead to 40-37 with his jumper at the 14:21 mark, Finney-Smith and Prather led a 20-6 run that staked Florida to a 60-43 advantage.
Little Rock couldn't get closer than 15 the rest of the way.
"I thought we did an excellent job on the 50-50 plays in the first half. But we got beat on the 50-50 plays in the second half. We didn't handle the pressure the way we needed to, especially in the second half," said Trojans head coach Steve Shields.
Game Notes
This marked the first-ever meeting between the schools ... Florida is 6-1 against Sun Belt teams under Donovan ... The Gators shot 51.7 percent (31-for-60) from the field and were 21-for-36 in the second half.
- ARKANSAS-LITTLE ROCK: 56
FLORIDA: 86
Final
Nov 16 6:31 PM - ARKANSAS-LITTLE ROCK: 27
FLORIDA: 27
Halftime
Nov 16 5:19 PM - 89
roots - 81
roots - 73
roots - ARKANSAS-LITTLE ROCK: 0
FLORIDA: 0
1st Half - 20:00
Nov 16 4:34 PM
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