Murphy helps No. 10 Florida roll past No. 20 Wisconsin

• Florida had no trouble scoring against traditionally one of the best defensive teams in the country
• Erik Murphy scored a career-high 24 points, shooting perfect 10-for-10 from the field
• The Gators shot 75 percent in the first half, draining 18 of 24 attempts

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Truth be told? Erik Murphy didn't miss a shot in No. 10 Florida's 74-56 win against 20th ranked Wisconsin on Wednesday night. And he had no clue.

"Somebody told me (at the end of the game),'' the senior forward said, after making all 10 of his field goal tries and all four free throws to match his career high of 24 points set last March against Kentucky, "I really had no idea.''

The 6-foot-10 senior forward wasn't feeling well earlier in the week and missed some practice time.

"I had areal bad migraine headache,'' he said. "I get them sometimes. I just took the day off and went and tried to lay down and get some rest.''

Murphy then went out and made the Badgers ill with his sizzling shooting.

"We worked on how we were going to cover. I don't hang my players out but the things we worked on, we did the opposite,'' Badgers coach Bo Ryan said of trying to stop Murphy and the Gators' sizzling shooting, which was 75 percent at the half and 61.9 for the game.

"It was younger guys who need to learn. It was a great experience for them because they will know why we do things the way we do them. This shows them they missed in that area and that they need to get better.''

Murphy became just the fourth player in Gators' history to make all his shots from the floor with double digit attempts — the others being Joakim Noah, David Lee and Randall Leath. He also pulled down eight boards.

"It just shows how he's committed,'' said Florida guard Mike Rosario, who added 15 points."He's been committed to the program for four years.''

Florida coach Billy Donovan was impressed with the Gators' scoring power in its second win in two outings.

"To score 74 points against this team, with how they play, and have 20 turnovers, that's unbelievable,'' Donovan said. "Normally you'd score 35 points against this team. What was impressive to me is we scored 74 points, turned it over 20 times and only made six 3's.

"This was one off those games where you'd expect to look and say 'Wow Florida was 15-of-30 from the 3-point line and bombed them,' But we didn't. We were good driving the ball, attacking, getting it to the rim, getting to the free-throw line. I thought our offense was run at the basket, in the paint, which is what we really talked about trying to do.''

Wisconsin, which shot 35.6 percent from the field, missed its first eight shots as Florida jumped out to a 9-0 lead and held the Badgers scoreless the first 5:09 of the contest.

"We let them get some easy looks and from there, they're obviously an extremely talented team,'' said Wisconsin forward Jared Berggren, who tied freshman forward Sam Dekker for a team-best 11 points. "Once we let them get going, we were in trouble.''

In a second key early Gators' run, Murphy scored seven straight for the Gators and Rosario had a bucket inside for an 18-6 lead midway through the first half. The Badgers got going with a 10-0 run that cut the deficit to 21-19 on George Marshall's 15-footer.

But Murphy, who had 13 of Florida's first 25 points, then hit a jumper and got a basket in the lane while Michael Frazier's second three of the game finished off a 7-0 run to expand the lead back to 28-19.

"We started the (first) half kind of in a grind but then we got it back,'' Ryan said. "We were really in a good position and then we had three turnovers in four possessions. We didn't do the assignments, exchanges, and (Florida) got open looks. We're not quite ready for that yet.''

Wisconsin got it back to a six-point game before the Gators launched a 9-3 run to match their biggest lead of the game at 37-25 with 4:12 remaining in the first half on a basket by Will Yeguete (nine points, eight rebounds).

The Gators had a 40-21 edge on the boards against the big, physical Badgers.

"I think we did a real good job rebounding,'' said Yeguete, who has been playing the small forward spot with injuries and the suspension of guard Scottie Wilbekin.

Kenny Boynton, who finished with 10 points and six rebounds and three assists, hit a 3-pointer and was fouled on the shot, completing a rare four-point play to make it 43-30 with 3:01 left in the first half. It was his 267th career 3-pointer to put him fourth on Florida's all-time list.

Florida made 18 of its first 22 shots from the field — an incredible accomplishment against a Bo Ryan-coached team. His Wisconsin teams led the nation in scoring defense twice in the last five seasons and the Big Ten in seven of the last 10 years. The Badgers allowed an average of 53.2 points a game in 2011-12 and the Gators almost matched that average in the first half alone, leading 43-31 at the break.

"We were getting looks and we were making shots, that's all,'' Murphy said. "It was just our night in the first half I guess.''

Florida shot 75 percent in the first half (18 of 24) but was hurt by 12 turnovers. The Badgers hit five 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes to help them stay in the game.

After an early Gators' run, Wisconsin would settled into a slower, physical pace it is known for in the second half.

Boynton, who'd been relatively quiet in the first half scoring four points, scored the first seven points of the second half pushing the Gators' lead to 50-31 almost four minutes in. A 9-2 rally by the Badgers shaved the deficit back to 12 points with less than 13 minutes to play.

But a little more than six minutes later, Florida polished off a 12-2 run of its own to take its first 20-point lead of the contest at 64-42 with 6:49 remaining.

David Jones also write for Florida Today