Senior
Tamara Stocks (Pickerington, OH) scored a season-high 23 points leading No. 14 Florida to an 85-48 victory over Kentucky at Memorial Coliseum. The Lady Gators improved to 13-1 overall this season and 2-0 in the Southeastern Conference, while the Wildcats fell to 4-8 overall, 0-2 in the SEC.
"We had an outstanding second half with different people stepping up at different times," UF head coach
Carol Ross said."
The Lady Gators led by four, 39-35, at halftime and after both teams opened the second period trading baskets Florida ripped off a devastating 28-2 run, with eight early points from
Tombi Bell, to take a 69-39 lead with 10:07 remaining in the game.
"Tombi (Bell) sat on the bench for most of the first half because of foul trouble so I knew at halftime that she could give us a spark in the second half," Ross said. "She set a definite tone for us in the second half."
Bell scored all of her 14 points in the second half, hitting 6-of-8 from the floor, most coming during UF's game-deciding run early in the period.
For the second straight game, UF's
Naomi Mobley and
Vanessa Hayden each recorded double-doubles, as Mobley tallied 12 points with 12 rebounds and Hayden added 13 points and 12 boards.
SeSe Helm was the lone Wildcat in double figures, scoring 11 of her team- high 13 points in the first half.
In the decisive second half, Kentucky shot just 20 percent from the floor, hitting 6-of-30, and managed to hit 30.4 percent for the game (21-of- 69).
The Lady Gators shot 51.5 percent from the field for the game, including 58.3 percent in the second half, when Florida outscored Kentucky 46-13. The Lady Gators also dominated the paint, outrebounding their hosts 53- 31.
The first seven minutes of the game featured seven lead changes and three ties as both teams traded baskets. Kentucky broke that trend when Rita Adams and Dasieka Hawthorne hit back-to-back three-pointers to give the Wildcats a 20-15 lead at the 11:25 mark of the first half. Florida regained the lead by scoring six straight points from three different players, but Kentucky tallied two field goals of its own for a 24-21 lead with 8:11 remaining in the opening period.
UF's Naomi Mobley then put-back a missed shot to ignite a 15-2 run to give the Lady Gator's a 36-26 lead with 6:44 left in the stanza. UK added a pair of free throws, but Florida countered with a three points to bring its lead to 11 (39-28) with 1:41 remaining until halftime. Kentucky's SeSe Helm then scored the final seven points of the half to cut Florida's lead to four points (39-35).
Florida controlled the boards in the first half, outrebounding Kentucky 28- 18. Post players Tamara Stocks, Vanessa Hayden and Naomi Mobley contributed 26 of UF's 39 first-half points.
Florida plays the final game of its three-game road swing on Thursday, January 11, when the Lady Gators travel to Athens, Ga., to battle the fourth-ranked Georgia Lady Bulldogs.
