Jennifer Fambrough hit two free throws with 5.8 seconds to go to seal the victory as the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs (13-12, 3-10 SEC) upset the ninth-ranked Florida Lady Gators 79-75 at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center Sunday afternoon. Senior center
Tamara Stocks (Pickertington, Ohio/Pickerington) led the Lady Gators with 18 points.
"Mississippi State did an outstanding job coming in here ready to go," Florida head coach
Carol Ross said. "The things that win in the SEC are defense and rebounding and we did neither."
Actually, Florida (21-4, 9-3 SEC) out-rebounded MSU 47-33 in the game, but the Lady Bulldogs snatched several key boards down the stretch. MSU shot 50.9 percent during the game, including a 53.3 percent effort in the second half.
Florida trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half and then by 11 with 15:39 remaining in the game, but the Lady Gators rallied to tie and eventually take the lead with 4:48 to go. Florida increased its lead to four (70-66) with 4:06 after
Monique Cardenas' jumper from under the basket with a sweet assist from
Brandi McCain. But Fambrough calmly came down the floor and nailed a 3-pointer and LaToya Thomas followed with a 3-footer to give MSU the lead (71-70).
Tombi Bell countered with a 3-pointer for Florida as UF took a 73-71 lead with 2:08 on the clock. Fambrough then added her third trey of the game and put MSU back up 74-73. Meadow Overstreet then hit one free throw to extend MSU's lead to two, as UF's Cardenas added a 3-footer to tie the score at 75-75 with 55.1 seconds remaining. The Lady Bulldogs took the lead for good at 77-75 on a driving layup by Jessica Carter with 39.5 seconds left in the game. Tombi Bell's layup with 5.8 seconds remaining was blocked by Keisha Stringfellow and Florida was forced to foul Fambrough who came up with the rebound. Fambrough hit both free throws to end the game's scoring and secure the victory for the Lady Bulldogs.
Florida trailed 37-28 at halftime and continued to trade baskets with MSU for most of the second half. The Lady Bulldogs led by as many as 11 points (49-38) mid-way through the second half. The Lady Gators then went on a 10-2 run to cut the lead to two at 62-60 with 8:25 to go in the game. Florida took the lead for the first time in the second half at 68-66 with just under five minutes to play on a basket by
Vanessa Hayden (Orlando, Fla./Boone). The lead sea-sawed back and forth the rest of the game.
Mississippi State jumped out to an early 10-4 lead before Florida came back with a 9-0 run, keyed by a three-pointer by junior guard Brandi McCain (Silsbee, Tex./Silsbee) and back to back baskets by senior guard Tombi Bell (Miami, Fla./Miami Norland). The game remained tight until the Lady Bulldogs reeled off a 14-0 run to lead 33-19 at the 2:35 mark in the first period. The Lady Gators cut the lead to seven at 33-26, but could get no closer in the first half as they trailed 37-28 at halftime.
"I saw some maturity today," Mississippi State head coach Sharon Fanning said. "I saw players in roles who had not been in those roles before starting to step up. I am proud of this group, we showed some leadership in the locker room after the game."
Behind Stocks, McCain had 16 points for the Lady Gators. Bell followed with 13 and junior guard Monique Cardenas (Keystone Heights, Fla./Keystone Heights) added 12. Junior forward
Naomi Mobley (Jacksonville, Fla./Ed White) pulled down 11 rebounds for Florida.
Mississippi State was led by Fambrough with 23 points. LaToya Thomas scored 20, while Meadow Overstreet scored 12 and Cynthia Hall scored 10 for the Lady Bulldogs.
Florida will return to action on Thursday, Feb. 22 when it hosts LSU in its regular season home finale. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. at the O'Connell Center.
