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North Florida - DH
Women's Basketball Opens 2006-07 Season With Largest Victory Since 2002
Saturday, November 11, 2006 | Women's Basketball
The University of Florida women's basketball team (1-0) opened the 2006-07 season with a dominating 78-37 victory over instate opponent North Florida (0-1) Friday evening at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
With its fourth-largest opening day victory of 41 points, Florida improved its all-time opening day record to 18-15 and 4-1 under head coach Carolyn Peck, while snapping North Florida's streak of 13-straight opening-day wins.
“I was pleased with the improvement our team made from the exhibition game. We worked on our execution offensively and our rotations, and also on our defenses during the past week,” Peck said. “The team did a good job of staying focused and playing together.”
All 11 Gators scored, with four reaching double figures, including Kim Dye (Fayetteville, Tenn.), who collected a game-high 13 points with four 3-poiners. Junior Depree Bowden (Palmetto, Fla.) chipped in 11 points, while senior Briana Phillips (Palmetto, Fla.) and freshman LaKendra Phillips (Collierville, Tenn.) each added 10. Eleven Florida players saw action in the victory, and each contributed in Florida's first 40+ point margin of victory since defeating Lamar, 91-42, on Nov. 22, 2002 - also Carolyn Peck's first game on the Gator sideline.
“We played all of our players tonight and all of them scored. As a coach, you can't ask for much more than that. Every single one of them answered when called upon, and that's going to be a key in our success throughout the season,” Peck said.
Despite being out-rebounded by North Florida 22-16 in the opening half, Florida came back and recorded 25 rebounds in the second half to lead the category 41-38. The Gators also led in assists (13-6) and blocks (5-0), and forced 30 Lady Ospreys turnovers, including 17 in the first half.
“What we were trying to do was control the tempo of the game and keep North Florida off balanced. Being a young team, we had too many turnovers in our first exhibition game, and we corrected that tonight. Young teams can lead to a lot of turnovers, and North Florida is going through that right now, too, with a young team,” Peck added.
The two teams traded points during the opening minutes of the second half before the Gators posted 15 unanswered points en route to a 60-28 lead with 10 minutes to play. After the Lady Osprey's Tiffany Williams notched five points on a three-pointer and a layup, the Gators came back with a 13-0 run before the game ended at 78-37.
Florida climbed to a 37-17 halftime lead as Dye and Bowden combined for nearly half of the Gators' points. Dye notched nine of her 10 points from the arc, while Bowden's eight points were a result of 3-for-4 shooting. Marshae Dotson (Columbus, Ohio) grabbed a team-high 10 boards along with seven points, while Briana Phillips collected four boards, helping Florida earn a 41-38 rebounding edge.
The Lady Ospreys claimed their lone lead of the game in the opening minutes on a three-pointer by Tamara Hubbard, before Dotson tied the game with a layup and free throw. Two of Dye's three-pointers came within the first three minutes of the half and sprung the Gators to a 9-3 lead. The Orange and Blue capitalized on an 11-0 run midway through the period for a 27-8 lead with eight minutes remaining to play, but the Lady Ospreys countered with nine points to the Gators 10 in the final minutes to close the half at 37-17.
Hubbard led the Lady Ospreys with eight points and Antoinette Reames grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
Overall, Florida out-shot North Florida 45.2 percent to 25.0 percent, and was 16-of-23 from the charity stripe for a near 70 percent average, while North Florida was just 5-for-16.
“I was very impressed with Florida's physical ability. You don't come into the O'Connell center and expect to be stellar against an SEC team, and we just got out-muscled tonight,” North Florida head coach Mary Tappmeyer said. “Our opening-game jitters were a bit more obvious than I would have liked, but the game got away from us when we had to go to our bench to relieve our starters.”
The Gators continue their early-season action Sunday, Nov. 12 with a 6 p.m. contest in Cincinnati against Xavier (0-0). The game can be heard in Gainesville on WRUF-AM850 and through the internet at www.GatorZone.com.
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