Sophomore guard Jennifer Mosser (Orlando, Fla.) poured in 13 of her team-high 17 points in the second half and junior guard Sha Brooks (Jackson, Tenn.) added 16 and four steals, as the University of Florida women's basketball team notched a 73-67 victory over Auburn on Thursday night at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
UF (15-8, 4-4 Southeastern Conference) shot a blistering 61.5 percent in the second half, including a 44.4 percent (4-9) clip from beyond the arc, to outlast an Auburn squad that entered the contest receiving votes in both polls. Despite shooting only 67.6 percent from the free throw line in league play, Florida was true on 16-of-19 attempts (84.2 percent) on Thursday night, and hit 7-of-10 in the last five minutes of the game.
“This was a huge win for us for a lot if different reasons,” Florida head coach Amanda Butler said. “The most important was to continue to improve in the SEC. We're right where we want to be, and with this tough stretch that we've had, it was important for us to bounce back and get this win.”
“We had great balance, not necessarily in our scoring, but in the way we played the game. People gave us great defensive minutes, and others stepped up to give us great offensive contributions. It was a great team win.”
Mosser's 17 points were her most since netting a career-best 19 against Arkansas on January 20. She knocked down 3-of-4 shots from long distance, all after halftime, and totaled a career-high seven field goals on 10 attempts.
Brooks rode an 8-of-8 night from the charity stripe to her 16 points, also marking her highest output since the victory at Arkansas. Junior forward Marshae Dotson (Columbus, Ohio) battled through first-half foul trouble to chip in all 11 points and six of her seven rebounds in the final 20 minutes of play. One of a trio of UF players with seven rebounds on the night, senior guard Depree Bowden (Palmetto, Fla.) handed out a game-high and career-best tying six assists.
The Gators opened the second half with an 11-2 run, sparked by six points from Dotson, to build a 38-28 lead with less than four minutes gone in the opening period. After the Tigers cut the lead to five, Mosser drilled a three and Dotson added a layup on back-to-back possessions to reopen a 10-point lead and force Auburn to burn a timeout with 14:32 left in the game.
UF's lead dipped to five, 48-43, with just over 12 minutes remaining, but a jumper by sophomore forward Sharielle Smith (Bradenton, Fla.) and Mosser's third three of the night pushed the margin back to 10 at the ensuing media timeout. The Gators' lead reached 13 at 60-47 with just over eight minutes in the ballgame when their transition offense yielded a three-point play for Smith and sophomore guard Brittaney Thomas (Montgomery, Ala.) scored on a floater in the lane.
With the Orange and Blue up just three with 2:30 to play, Mosser drove the lane and connected on a layup to put Florida up by a count of 68-63. After an Auburn score, Brooks sunk a pair of free throws to make the score 70-65 in favor of the home team, but the Tigers answered with another bucket and called timeout with UF holding a slime 70-67 lead.
Brooks stepped to the line with 27.4 seconds on the clock and calmly nailed a pair of free throws to give UF a 72-67 edge, and Henry connected on one of two with 14.2 second remaining in regulation to put the Gators up a half dozen, 73-67. A last-gasp Auburn three-point attempt fell short and the final buzzer sounded on Florida's six-point victory.
“We were disappointed that we were out-rebounded in the first half, and that was one of the things that we definitely wanted to change,” Butler said. “We ended up out-rebounding them by two. To go into the half with the lead with Marshae (Dotson) having no points is a credit to everyone else stepping up in different ways.”
Brooks scored eight-straight UF points in the middle stages of the opening frame to put the Gators in front by a point, 17-16, with just over seven minutes left before the half. Brooks connected on a second-chance layup at the 4:35 mark of the first to pull UF even at 21-21, and scored six of the half's final 11 points to take a 27-26 advantage into the locker room. Henry cleaned up yet another second-chance opportunity with less than 15 seconds on the clock to provide the Gators' with the halftime lead.
Brooks played 19 minutes in the first half, leading all participants with a dozen points, pulling down five rebounds and recording a trio of steals.
Florida mitigated a rough shooting start to the game with stout first-half defense, holding AU scoreless for nearly two and a half minutes to open the contest and limiting the Tigers to just 28.6 percent shooting from the floor. UF collected five steals on six Auburn turnovers and blocked a pair of shots in the game's opening 20 minutes.
DeWanna Bonner paced Auburn (15-7, 3-4 SEC) with 30 points, nine rebounds and three assists in the night. Sherrell Hobbs added 10 points and a game-high five steals for the Tigers.
“We shot the ball poorly in the first half and couldn't recover,” Auburn head coach Nell Fortner said. “Florida shot the ball well and played hard. We had too many breakdowns defensively and it cost us the ballgame.”
The Gators will take the court again on Sunday, when they visit Mississippi State for a 2:30 p.m. ET affair. FSN South, FSN Southwest and Sun Sports will televise the action live, and WURF-AM 850 will carry the radio call in the Gainesville market and thru www.GatorZone.com, the official website of the Florida Gators.
Post-Game Quotes:
Amanda Butler
Opening Statement:
“This was a huge win for us for a lot if different reasons. The most important was to continue to improve in the SEC. We're right where we want to be, and with this tough stretch that we've had, it was important for us to bounce back and get this win."
“We had great balance, not necessarily in our scoring, but in the way we played the game. People gave us great defensive minutes, and others stepped up to give us great offensive contributions. It was a great team win.”
"I think that the way that we started the game against LSU and the way we finished that game was a lesson we learned; the way that we started the LSU game was even more critical. We didn't start the game off great in the first half tonight, but we sure did in the second half. Our energy and intensity of attacking offensively and defensive generated a lot of points for us. I think that was a demonstration of us realizing that we are good and this is how we can be a very good team."
"We were disappointed that we were out-rebounded in the first half and that was one of the things that we definitely wanted to change. We ended up out-rebounding them by two. To go into the half with Marshae (Dotson) having no points is a credit to everyone else stepping up in different ways. There were a few tweaks to make, but really it was a lot of the intangibles."
On critical closing moments:
"I thought the biggest thing at the end of the game was having a player like Aneika (Henry), who isn't put in that situation very often, step up for us and hit from the free throw line. I think she took the lead from 4 to 5, and that was a demonstration of the progress of this team. If you really believe it, then you are going to step up to the line and hit those free throws. If you believe you are going to hit the shot, you are going to hit it. The same goes for getting a crucial rebound. That is what you saw more than anything from our team, a demonstration of our will."
On defensive play between halves:
"We didn't do a good job of playing the glass when they missed their shots. That was a big thing from the first half to the second half and that was where we saw improvement. Our ability to the lock up in the half-court and in man made it difficult for them to get into an offensive flow."
Florida Junior Marshae Dotson:
On the run to open the second half:
"We were basically fired up because we were losing the rebounds. Coach said a few words in the locker room that got us going and that was all it took. We honestly really wanted to win this game so we had to come out strong in the second half."
On her first-half foul trouble:
"It did frustrate me. But my teammates played strong and I tried to continuously talk to them. They picked it up a put out a win."
Florida Junior Sha Brooks:
On the run to open the second half:
"We just had to come out strong and try to get the lead. Get out and run to get transition points because they were tired."
Auburn Head Coach Nell Fortner
Opening Statement:
“We shot the ball poorly tonight. I thought Florida shot the ball really well and they played really, really hard. We had too many breakdowns defensively and it cost us the ballgame.”
On the play of DeWanna Bonner:
“That's pretty typical of her. She can get you 30 (points) on any given night. I wish we would've had a little more help for her tonight. She didn't have much help tonight. I thought she played really hard and did as much as she could to help us win the ballgame. You have to have every player helping and we didn't get her enough help tonight.”
On the start of the Second-Half:
“I thought that was the ballgame. That's disappointing, coming out with a slow start to start the second half. Starting the second half has been a little bit of a problem of ours and it got us tonight. It's hard to recover when you're playing a team like Florida. You know it's going to be a close game and come down to the wire. Ten (points) down is hard to recover from.”
END OF REPORT
