Florida beat Mississippi Valley State, 82-54, on Monday night, and got contributions from its three-headed backcourt in nearly equal measure to do it. Erving Walker led all scorers with 19 points, and made all eight of his free throws on the way; Kenny Boynton hit three threes and scored 16 points; Bradley Beal had one of the more efficient nights of his Gators career with three threes and 13 points on just seven shots.
And Patric Young and Erik Murphy both joined the Florida backcourt in double figures — as did the Florida bench, combined, despite the absence of Mike Rosario, out with a back ailment, and Cody Larson, sick with the flu. These are all of the things that Florida is supposed to do against woefully overmatched competition — Mississippi Valley State shot 30.8% from the field and made six of 32 triples — and they were accompanied by a pleasant bit of superb free throw shooting: Florida made 20 of 24 attempts from the charity stripe.
But teams can't cut their teeth against flan, and that's what the Delta Devils were. Florida needs to remember that heading into Thursday's rivalry game with Florida State, especially as it seems that the Gators will be without both Rosario and Larson for that match-up.