Florida Coach Billy Donovan called it the “perfect storm” for his 14th-ranked Gators on Saturday.

B.J. Young (11) scored 31 points on 10-of-19 shooting.

In the eyes of the Arkansas Razorbacks and Coach Mike Anderson, “that was a tough day at the office.”

Florida made 13 of 23 three-pointers and handed Arkansas its worst loss ever at Bud Walton Arena, beating the Razorbacks 98-68 in front of 18,913 fans and an ESPN2 audience.

The Gators (21-6, 9-3 SEC) led by as many as 28 in the first half and were up 53-27 at halftime. Arkansas (17-10, 5-7) never got closer than 22 points in the final 20 minutes.

“I was totally shocked to see us come out and get behind that fast,” Anderson said. “But let’s give credit to Florida. Billy has a dynamite team. They're one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country and that was on display today.

“When you talk about tough days at the office, that was a tough day at the office.”

Senior point guard Erving Walker led the way for Florida, scoring a career-high 31 points on 9-of-12 shooting, including a 5-for-6 effort from three-point range. Junior guard Kenny Boynton added 25 points, hitting 3 three-pointers. Freshman guard Bradley Beal scored 21, and 6-10 forward Erik Murphy scored 13, also hitting 3 three-pointers.

Arkansas got a career-high 31 points from freshman guard B.J. Young, but nobody else did much for the Hogs. Freshman forward Devonta Abron scored 11 points, hitting 7 of 9 from the free-throw line, but grabbed only one rebound. No other Hog reached double digits in scoring.

The Razorbacks suffered their first loss inside Bud Walton Arena this season, falling to 17-1 at home. Arkansas’ previous worst defeat inside Bud Walton, which opened in 1993, was a 73-51 loss to Auburn three years ago.

“Obviously, it was a perfect storm in a lot of ways because we got to the free-throw line and we shot the ball really, really well,” Donovan said.

“I’m not so sure our team is 30 points better than anybody in this league. It just happened to be one of those days ...”

Florida went 29 of 34 (85.3 percent) from the free-throw line. Arkansas was 18 of 29 (62.1 percent). The Gators were 58.3 percent from the floor and 56.5 percent from three-point range. Arkansas was 36.8 percent from the floor and 36.4 percent from beyond the arc.

In all, 50 fouls were called in the game – 28 against Arkansas. There were also three technical fouls – a double-technical on Walker and Abron, and a tech called on Anderson.

Anderson wasn’t happy with the way the game was officiated.

“I thought it was probably the most disruptive game I’ve been associated with,” Anderson said. “They stopped play 10 minutes just to say a double foul, a double technical foul. It was a choppy game is what it was.

“I just thought at times physicality took place and we weren’t the recipient of calls. I do have a problem with that. I think the game should be called both ways.”

Former Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey, Anderson’s predecessor who’s now a Florida assistant, won in his return to Bud Walton and received a nice ovation from fans before the game.

Donovan talked at length about what a great person and coach Pelphrey is, and about how classy Razorback fans are. Donovan also said Pelphrey didn’t help the Gators that much with his knowledge of Arkansas’ players.

“The one area that is totally different is I think Mike has come in and he’s retaught a different style, a different system, and I think that those players are probably being used a little bit differently than maybe John used them,” Donovan said. “Some of those guys were younger, a year younger last year.

“Obviously they’re playing a lot of freshmen. John didn’t really get a chance to coach any of those guys. Young, (Rashad) Madden, Abron, those guys are all somewhat new. I don’t think that John gave us anything that was different than any scouting report that we would go through, so to speak.”