Behind senior Tashia Morehead's game-high 19 points and clutch shooting performance, the University of Florida women's basketball team topped Mississippi State, 67-56, Sunday afternoon in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
With a 35-17 halftime advantage, the Gators (14-10, 5-6 SEC) seemed to have an insurmountable lead before the Lady Bulldogs (14-9, 3-7 SEC) rallied throughout the second half, applying a half-court press that frustrated the Gators into committing 21 turnovers for the game and propelling the Bulldogs to two separate 11-0 runs.
Mississippi State got to within 50-49 with 6:30 remaining in the game before Morehead hit a three-point shot in the middle of a personal seven-minute run in which she scored 13 of the Gators' 15 points.
"Tashia down the stretch really took the team on her back," said UF head coach Carolyn Peck, who recorded her 99th career victory. "Big players hit the big shots in the game and that's what Tashia did."
Junior Bernice Mosby tallied 17 points and 16 rebounds, six of them coming on the offensive side, as she was the driving force behind Florida's first half explosion, while recording her seventh double-double of the season and the 17th of her career.
After Morehead's key three-pointer, the Gators ran off an 8-0 run capitalized by junior Sarah Lowe's fast-break lay up with just under a minute remaining in the game. Junior Dalila Eshe's 4-of-4 free throw shooting late in the game clinched the win for the Gators.
It was all Florida in the first half, scoring the first 11 points of the game while shooting 48.4 percent from the field and limiting Mississippi State to 24.1 percent (21-6).
Very early in the second half a pair of field goals by Mosby and Morehead extended the Florida lead to a game-high 22 points, before the Bulldogs woke up from their slumber as six players contributed to their two 11-0 runs.
"We had lost our concentration a little bit and we were watching the score," Peck said. "Mississippi State came out with a lot of energy and a lot of determination."
The Gators held the nation's leading scorer, Mississippi State's Tan White, to 14 points, well below her season average of 23.6. UF pressured White all day, limiting her to 5-of-17 shooting, also below her season average of 42.8 percent heading into the game. White managed to finish as the Bulldogs' leading scorer while junior Doceide Warren scored 10 points and grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
With the win, UF snapped a four-game losing streak to Mississippi State and now has a two-game winning streak in the SEC heading into next week's rematch versus Vanderbilt. Mississippi State dropped its sixth game in a row.
Florida's presence in the paint was the big difference as Eshe grabbed eight boards to complement Mosby's 16 and all but one of Florida's players recorded a rebound to hold a 47-29 team advantage for the game.
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