GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Senior guard Canyon Barry scored 14 points to lead four Florida players in double-digit scoring, and the 12th-ranked Gators beat Arkansas 78-65 on Senior Night in Gainsville, Wednesday.
“We wanted to send the seniors out right,” Barry said.
Barry, who shot 5-for-11 from the floor and made three 3-pointers, was enjoying his best outing since scoring 30 points in the win over Auburn last month, after he suffered an ankle injury two weeks ago.
“First time I felt like jumping hasn’t really hurt me,” Barry added. “[I’m] starting to get my explosion back.”
Coach Mike White said about Barry: “He was much more athletic tonight than he was two weeks ago.”
KeVaughn Allen, Kasey Hill and Chris Chiozza added 12 points each for Florida (24-6, 14-3 Southeastern Conference), which shot 50.9 percent and rebounded from the defeat to Kentucky on Saturday.
Jaylen Barford led Arkansas with 18 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists.
Moses Kingsley added 17 points and nine rebounds and Dusty Hannahs finished with 13 points for the Razorbacks (22-8, 11-6), who had their five-game winning streak stopped.
“They were more in attack mode than we were,” Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. “They were doing whatever they wanted to do.
“In the second half, I thought we were doing a better job of building a wall and making them shoot jump shots and then have to rebound those jump shots.”
Florida led 41-28 at halftime and held a double-digit lead for most of the second half en route to clinching the No. 2 seed in the Southeastern Conference Tournament next week.
The Gators will complete their regular season at Vanderbilt on Saturday, hoping to find a better form against the Commodores, who have beaten them in three of its last four meetings.
Arkansas finish its regular season on Saturday against Georgia.
