Despite a game-high 26 points and 13 rebounds from senior All-American Vanessa Hayden, the Florida women's basketball team couldn't overcome a poor shooting night and lost to Baylor 71-54 in the O'Connell Center Tuesday evening. The loss snapped the Gator's four-game win streak and ended their non-conference home winning streak at 15 games.
Florida (9-3) shot a season-low 26.9 percent from the floor, hitting just 18-of-67, which included Hayden's 10-for-18 effort. The Gators managed just 25 percent (8-32) in the second half, when Baylor (11-1) outscored them 42-23. UF also committed 10 of its 17 turnovers in the final 20 minutes. The Lady Bears shot 41.5 percent (27-65) from the floor during the game and held a 47-45 rebounding edge, including grabbing eight more in the second half.
"We're going to have nights when we're not hitting shots," Florida Head Coach Carolyn Peck said. "The goal of basketball is to outscore your opponent. That is hard to do when your shots are not falling."
The Gators held a 40-37 lead with 14:38 remaining in the game when Baylor used an aggressive defense and a flustering 3-2 zone to ignite a 20-3 run highlighted by several steals and fast break opportunities. Danielle Santos finally halted the Lady Bear scoring spree with 7:32 on the clock, which cut the Baylor lead to 57-45. A late surge by the Gators, highlighted by a pair of three-pointers from Tamia Williams, would not be enough to overcome Baylor's devastating run.
"Credit Baylor's defense," Peck said. "They did a great job with their defense. Their 3-2 zone threw us out of rhythm."
Bernice Mosby was UF's only other double-figure scorer, recording 10 points for the Gators.
Steffanie Blackmon led the Lady Bears with 24 points and nine rebounds, while Jessika Stratton added 14 points and Sophia Young tallied 10 points with nine rebounds.
The game started slowly as the two teams recorded just three baskets in the first six and a half minutes of play. Hayden yhaydenHljkhfscored twice for the Gators while Blackmon posted the lone Baylor score. The two teams began to find their rhythm with about 13 minutes left in the half. Baylor took its first lead of the game when Sophia Young went coast to coast on a steal at the Gator foul line and made the score 15-14 in favor of the Lady Bears with just over 10 minutes to go in the first half.
The two teams would go back and forth for much of the remainder of the period, with Hayden dominating down low scoring 17 in the half while pulling down seven rebounds. In one stretch UF's senior center scored six straight points for the Gators and made it nine of 11 points on an impressive dribble drive where she was fouled. The drive came after a Tishona Gregory three-pointer that put the Gators on top 21-20, a lead that they would not relinquish in the first half.
Blackmon led the way for Baylor in the first half scoring 10 points on 4-5 shooting but could only bring her team within two of the home standing Gators at 31-29 as the teams headed to the locker room entrenched in a defensive battle.
Florida returns to action on January 2, when the team travels to Philadelphia to play Temple.
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