Senior All-American Vanessa Hayden put on a show in front of her hometown fans, scoring 20 points with 11 rebounds in just 19 minutes in a convincing 79-48 victory over UCF Saturday at the UCF Holiday Classic in Orlando. The double-double was Hayden's sixth of the season and the 39th of her career and has been instrumental in helping the Gators to a 8-2 record this season.
Both teams were playing their second game in as many days, but the Gators benefited from rotating their entire bench into Friday's 86-50 blowout of Bethune-Cookman and didn't show any signs of fatigue. By building a significant early lead in Saturday's game, UF again was able to have multiple players see quality action and hopefully not drain the team in preparation for the Gator's next outing which tips-off in less than 48 hours.
Florida returns to action on Monday, December 22, playing host to George Washington (5-2) beginning at 1:00 p.m. in the O'Connell Center. That game is part of the Magic 101.3 Toys for Tots Drive and fans who donate a toy receives two-for-one admission. Additionally, the first 400 kids, 12 and under received a Jr. Rowdy Reptiles T-shirt courtesy of Sunshine Network.
"Our players have done a tremendous job of staying focused with back-to-back games," UF head coach Carolyn Peck said. "Everything we did to prepare for today's game was a mental because we never actually took the court with such a short turnaround. We wanted to be aggressive and correct things we didn't do well the night before."
UF's bench was assessed a technical foul as the teams headed into the locker room and UCF (2-6) capitalized by hitting two free throws to begin the second half. The Golden Knights then took possession and Takira Allen hit a jumper to cut the Gator lead that had reached 17 points with four seconds remaining in the first half, to 10 points, 38-28, with 19:31 remaining in the game.
But Vanessa Hayden scored UF's first basket of the second half and nine points during an ensuing game-breaking 19-0 run that lasted almost seven minutes, as the Gators upped their lead to 29 points, 57-28, with 13 minutes to go in the contest. UCF called a pair of timeouts during the spree and was out of timeouts with 14:07 remaining in the game.
"I didn't have to talk to the team about picking up their intensity after halftime, they did it themselves," Peck said. "I think the technical foul helped fuel their fire and defensive intensity."
Danielle Santos added 13 points with four assists and four steals, hitting 6-of-9 shots from the floor, while Tara Taylor posted a season-high 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting to complete the double-figure scoring Gators.
"We talk a lot about Vanessa Hayden, as well we should, but the Danielle Santos has been playing some terrific basketball," Peck said. "She's really in a groove offensively and she's been great on the defensive side of the floor."
UF committed just 10 turnovers and forced 25, shooting 42.3 percent (33-78) during the game and holding UCF to just 34 percent shooting.
The Gators raced out to a quick 7-0 lead with scoring from Vanessa Hayden, Brittany Davis and Danielle Santos. But UCF hit the next four points and the team's continued to trade baskets for the next five-plus minutes. That's when UF went on a 9-0 spree capped by a three-point play from Hayden that gave the Gators a 19-7 lead with 9:32 left in the first half.
The Gators appeared to have the momentum until Celeste Hudson exploded for the first eight points during a 10-0 Golden Knight run the cut UF's deficit to two, 19-17, with 7:28 on the clock. Bernice Mosby finally ended the UCF run with an up-and-under two-footer. After Ali Roberts canned a jumper from the baseline with 6:55 remaining that kept UCF within two, Mosby answered with a jumper from the free throw line and ignited a 14-0 that extended the Gator lead to 35-19 with 1:06 left. Roberts ended the UCF drought with a short jumper, but Mosby followed with a three-pointer from the top of the key with four seconds left. However that wasn't the end of the first half scoring, as Lashaunda Slade canned a trey at the buzzer and the Gators headed into the locker room with a 38-24 lead.
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