Mississippi State scored the first 20 points of the game and the University of Florida women's basketball team never recovered, falling to the Lady Bulldogs, 83-71, on Sunday afternoon at Humphrey Coliseum.
Florida tried to rally with an 11-2 run midway through the second half and whittled a large deficit to 13 points with 3:57 remaining, but MSU (15-9, 3-6 SEC) answered every Gator score with one of its own over the next three minutes and prevented the comeback effort.
“Mississippi State came out and punched us in the lip and we let them hit us again and again early. We got outplayed in every aspect. Clearly, we were not ready to go out of the shoot and Mississippi State was,” UF head coach Amanda Butler said. “They came out and protected their home floor. They took advantage of every hustle play and every time they had a chance to capitalize on one of our mistakes they did so. We did not play Florida Basketball during any point of today's game. We could not have picked a worse time to have our worst performance of the year.”
Sophomore Jennifer Mossor dropped in a career-high 20 points for Florida (15-9, 4-5 SEC), which shot 41.9 percent for the game, including a 54.5 percent effort in the second stanza when the Gators outscored the Bulldogs, 50-39.
“Jenn was the one positive in the game for us,” Butler said. “She played like she wanted the ball and I'm proud of the way she shot the ball well. Depree (Bowden) tried to get points any way she could, but we just got completely out-played in the paint.”
Depree Bowden finished with 19 points and eight rebounds, while Sha Brooks and Marshae Dotson each contributed 10 points. During Florida's late run, Dotson became the 20th Gator to hit the 1,000-point plateau for her career, converting the first of two free throws with 6:25 remaining in the game.
As poorly as the Gators started the first half, was as strong as they played in the opening minute of the second. UF stole the ball seconds into the period and Depree Bowden hit the layin, before she put back an offensive rebound to cut into the deficit, forcing the Bulldogs to call a timeout one minute into the half.
MSU regrouped and scored the next four points to resume its 23-point advantage, before UF again dropped the margin to 19. The Bulldogs used a 6-1 run to quell the Gator momentum, taking a 24-point lead.
“For that first minute (of the second half), it really looked like we were about to do something special, but then we just slipped into being too passive and handed them the reigns again,” Butler said.
The teams traded buckets for the next several minutes and Florida couldn't make a move on the deficit until Bowden hit a pair of free throws at the 7:07 mark to start the 11-2 run that eventually saw UF cut the hole to 12 points and final margin.
The Gators committed 26 turnovers in the game, 16 in the deciding first half, while the Bulldogs had 20 miscues and held the 38-37 rebounding edge at the final horn.
The beginning of the game could not have started worse for the Gators, who missed their first six shots, while MSU hit seven of its first 10 from the floor and ripped off the first 20 points of the game. Florida collected just two defensive rebounds during the spree, turned the ball over six times and called two timeouts after less than five minutes ticked off the clock.
Marshae Dotson finally ended Florida's scoring drought with a turnaround hook in the paint at the 14:44 mark and Sha Brooks followed with a three-pointer from the top of the arc and the Gators cut the deficit to 15 points with 13:50 remaining in the first half.
After the teams traded buckets, MSU ripped off an 11-0 run over the next 3:43 and extended its lead to 26 points, 33-7, with just over seven minutes left.
Florida continued to play hard, as Brooks picked off a pass at the top of the defense and took it the length of the court for a layup to spark a 6-0 march. Jennifer Mossor added a 10-foot jumper during the run, while Brooks snared a defensive board and dribbled in traffic for a tough layin that brought UF within 20 at the 5:25 mark.
For the most part, the teams traded scores for the remainder of the period, as MSU took a commanding 44-21 lead into the locker room.
The Bulldogs shot 50 percent from the field (16-of-32) and converted 10-of-15 free throws, while the Gators connected on just 27.6 percent (8-of-29) from the floor, but did manage to even the rebounding at 21-all. Florida's undoing came from its own miscues, committing 16 turnovers that the Bulldogs turned into 16 points.
Florida continues its road swing on Thursday, February 14th, when the team travels to Athens, Ga., to play No. 24 Georgia. Comcast Charter Sports Southeast will televise the game live, with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m. from Stegeman Coliseum. The radio broadcast of the game can be heard live in Gainesville on WRUF-AM850 and through www.GatorZone.com, the official website of the Florida Gators.
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