Depree Bowden (Palmetto, Fla.) scored a game-high 21 points leading the University of Florida women's basketball team to an impressive 71-57 victory against South Carolina in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Thursday at the Sommet Center.
Bowden, the Gators' lone senior, tallied 19 of her points in the first half when she single-handedly out-scored the Gamecocks, 19-17, helping Florida (18-12) build a 34-17 lead at the break.
During those opening 20 minutes, Florida ripped off a 21-3 run after South Carolina (15-15) had tied the game at 10-all with 13:53 on the clock. Bowden started the spree with a jumper and scored 11 points during the game-changing march that lasted just over nine minutes and helped the Gators take a 31-13 lead with 4:12 remaining in the period.
South Carolina scored the next four points and cut UF's lead to 14 points with one minute to go, before Bowden zipped in her fifth three-pointer of the period as the halftime horn sounded to give the Gators the momentum entering the locker room.
Florida's intense defense forced a pair of shot-clock violations and limited USC to a paltry 19.2 percent shooting effort, as the taller Gamecocks hit just 18-of-40 from the floor.
The 10th-seeded Gamecocks scored the first bucket of the second half, before Aneika Henry (Coconut Grove, Fla.) and Marshae Dotson (Columbus, Ohio) combined for the next six points and gave the seventh-seeded Gators a 21-point lead, 40-19 with just under 17 minutes left in the game.
South Carolina then turned up its play and used a 12-2 run over the next four-plus minutes to get UF's lead to 11 points, 42-31, with 12:22 on the clock, forcing a Gator timeout. Sha Brooks (Jackson, Tenn.) responded immediately by converting a three-point play that sparked a 9-2 march, during which Jennifer Mossor (Orlando, Fla.) and Sharielle Smith (Bradenton, Fla.) added scores and Dotson picked off a pass and ran the floor, dishing to Brooks who converted the layup that swelled the Gator lead to 18 with 9:39 remaining and the Gators were never threatened again.
“I am very pleased with the way that we played basketball tonight,” UF head coach Amanda Butler said. “I thought for almost 40 minutes we executed and followed the game plan and played with the type of passion and energy and confidence that you have to play with at this time of the season to make things happen. That's what we wanted to do tonight, make things happen and not be reactive. I thought we did that, especially when we faced a little adversity when Marshae (Dotson) picked up two quick fouls. We generated offense from our defense. Depree (Bowden) and Sha (Brooks) played well under a lot of pressure. Overall, this was a great team effort.”
The victory was the perfect birthday present for Butler, the youngest of the 12 league coaches who celebrated her 36th on Thursday.
Butler and her Gators advance to the quarterfinals where they play third-ranked and No. 2-seeded Tennessee on Friday at 3:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. CT). The game will be televised live on FSN South, FSN Southwest and Sun Sports, while the radio broadcast can be heard live in Gainesville on WRUF 850AM and through the internet at www.GatorZone.com, the official website of the Florida Gators.
In addition to posting her fifth 20-point game of the season, Bowden dished a career-high seven assists with zero turnovers, shooting 8-of-13 overall, including 5-of-6 from the three-point arc.
“Once I hit my first two (shots), I gained confidence and went from there,” shared Bowden, who helped Florida take the three-game series against USC, 2-1. “They beat us on my senior night so I wanted to get back at them.”
Also during Thursday's victory, Brooks scored 14 points and contributed four assists and rebounds.
“I thought we played with more intensity (than in the regular-season loss to South Carolina),” Brooks said. “We really knew the game plan and knew we needed to come out and start quick in the first half and continue it in the second half. We did get into a lull in the second half and knew we had to pick it up in the end.”
Henry added 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting, while swatting two shots and grabbing three boards, where USC did hold a 46-33 advantage, grabbing 21 offensive rebounds and turning them into 20 second-chance points.
POST GAME NOTES:
Florida
*The win today marks the third consecutive year Florida has won its opening game in the SEC Tournament.
*With the win, Florida's record improves to 18-12 on the season, a nine-game improvement over last year, which represents the largest turnaround by a first-year Gator coach.
*With 18 wins, UF doubled the win total from last season.
*Senior guard Depree Bowden set a new Florida high for three-pointers made in an SEC Tournament game with five, surpassing the previous record of four, which was shared by three players.
*Bowden's 19 first half points set a new career high for points in a half.
*Florida improves to 14-3 on the year when leading at the half.
*The Gators forced 22 turnovers, resulting in 23 Florida points.
*Florida Head Coach Amanda Butler celebrated her 36th birthday with today's win.
South Carolina
*South Carolina finishes the tournament at 15-15 overall, 4-11 in the Southeastern Conference for the season. South Carolina completed regular-season play at 15-14 overall, 4-10 in league play.
*This is the second time the Gamecocks have met Florida in SEC Tournament play, South Carolina is now 0-2 in the tournament series.
*South Carolina finished the first-half with their third lowest points scored with 17. It was also the third time this season the Gamecocks scored 17 points in the first-half.
*South Carolina held Florida to 42.9 percent (27-of-63) shooting from the field. Only nine teams this season have shot than 42.9 percent against the Gamecocks.
*The Gamecocks used the starting lineup of Demetress Adams, Lakesha Tolliver, Llona Borgrova, Brionna Dickerson and Jordan Jones.
*South Carolina has been defeated this season only four times by more than 12 points against unranked opponents.
*South Carolina's leading scorer was Llona Borgrova with 12. She has scored in double digits in 14 of the last 24 games.
*Demetress Adams recorded a team-high nine rebounds, she is fourth in the SEC averaging 9.0 rebounds per game.
FLORIDA interviews with:
COACH AMANDA BUTLER
SHA BROOKS
DEPREE BOWDEN
THE MODERATOR: Coach, welcome home. If you could make an opening comment, then we'll take questions for the players. They can take off, and then we'll come back to questions for you.
COACH BUTLER: Very pleased with the way that we played the basketball game tonight. I thought almost completely for 40 minutes we executed and followed the game plan and played with the type of passion and energy and confidence that you have to play with at this time of the season to make things happen, and that's what we wanted to do tonight was make things happen, not be reactive, and I thought we did that, especially in the face of a little adversity, Marshae picking up two quick fouls. We had people step up and score in other ways, generated offense from our defense. Depree carried us a lot in the first half, Sha very composed under pressure, but overall a fantastic team effort.
Q. Depree, can you talk about your mindset in that first half when you just seemed like you could make everything?
DEPREE BOWDEN: Well, I hit my first two and I kind of got confidence from there and just started shooting. They beat me on my senior night, so I knew I wanted to get back at them.
Q. Do you realize you outscored them by yourself in the first half, and have you ever been involved in anything like that?
DEPREE BOWDEN: No, I didn't realize I outscored them in the first half, and yes, I have been involved in something like that before.
Q. Sha, the last two matches with South Carolina have been very close games. What do you think was the difference today?
SHA BROOKS: We just had more intensity. They beat us last time so we knew we had to come out and play aggressive in the first half and in the second half, we kind of got in a lull in the second half, but then we had to pick it back up in the end.
Q. For both of you, how much different do you feel like you are, I think it's eight days ago, since you played UT, and what needed to happen differently for you guys?
SHA BROOKS: I just think that we came out really, really aggressive, and we wanted this thing. We've got to want every single game. We were more prepared than South Carolina. We knew all their players and what we had to do to win. For UT we're just going to have to go out and out‑hustle.
DEPREE BOWDEN: For UT we have to start out confident and be aggressive and put two halves together.
Q. What did Carol Ross's pregame talk mean to you?
DEPREE BOWDEN: It meant a lot. She got us motivated and inspired to play, and it was good. It was real good.
SHA BROOKS: Same as Pree.
Q. How about the hot three‑point shooting and the scoring in the first half itself?
COACH BUTLER: Well, she was a little humble, but I think especially in an SEC ballgame when you're able to do that, it's a tremendous performance and I think you saw an instance of a senior sensing the moment. All factors considered Marshae was on the bench. Her shots were not just big in terms of momentum and that sort of thing, but it made everybody around her confident. When one of our shooters is hitting, I think it makes all of our team feel like good things are going to happen on both ends of the floor.
Q. How much of a birthday present is this for you?
COACH BUTLER: It was fantastic. It was all I wanted. I just wanted to win, didn't care by how many, didn't care what it looked like, just wanted to win and advance.
Q. Do you think you guys are on that bubble that everybody likes to talk about?
COACH BUTLER: I sure hope so. I sure would like to think so. I think we've done some things, and a big one was today. We needed to win this basketball game and do it in a convincing fashion and show that we're a postseason team. I think that's definitely a performance that you saw today. We were an NCAA Tournament team, no question.
Q. How much different are you than eight days ago, and what closed the gap from that result against UT last time?
COACH BUTLER: Well, I think the offensive confidence that we played with today was crucial, and our preparation as the players mentioned. We had an opportunity, obviously, to play a team we were very familiar with, and now hopefully we'll be more familiar with Tennessee.
It always helps to have that first game under your belt and have some actual film of you versus them to look at and see where we fell short and see what we did well, so that's what we'll do now is go back to the drawing board because obviously the game plan we were in in Knoxville didn't turn out so well.
Q. How did it feel to have your parents in the stands and see this game?
COACH BUTLER: It was nice. I'm a family person. It's great to see so many familiar faces and different people that mean a lot to me. You know, I can't say that I looked up there too often.
I did hear my mom whistling every now and then. But it's great to be in Nashville and in the mid‑state where basketball is so important and well‑supported and in a place where a lot of Gators showed up to cheer for us tonight.
Q. Are you going to bring Carol Ross before every game now?
COACH BUTLER: Carol Ross has got other duties, and certainly I draw a lot of the things that I do, and probably even things that I say from her. So just her presence before and around the game today certainly made us feel good.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. We'll see you here tomorrow.
SOUTH CAROLINA Interviews With:
COACH SUSAN WALVIUS
DEMETRESS ADAMS
ILONA BURGROVA
THE MODERATOR: Coach, we'll ask you for an opening statement and we'll take questions for the players and they can take off and we'll do questions for you.
COACH WALVIUS: Opening comment, you have to give Florida a lot of credit. I thought they came out and played absolutely fantastic today. They were extremely aggressive offensively. They made it difficult for us to feed our post play, which was our game plan today, and you've got to give them a lot of credit.
We are hoping that we're going to have an opportunity to continue our season and feel like we've ‑‑ we're hoping that we've got an opportunity to play in the WNIT, and that's what we're talking about now in the locker room, just continuing to hopefully have the opportunity to continue to play basketball.
Q. For both of you, first half you go to the locker room and realize you've been out scored by their hot shooter 19‑17. A little disheartening she was able to get going that early?
DEMETRESS ADAMS: Yeah, it was a little disheartening, but our team has been a team that has been able to fight back whenever we got down, and I think we did a good job this time in trying to fight back and just to shore up those errors that we made to get those shooters over it.
ILONA BURGROVA: I don't have anything else to say.
Q. Did they give you any different looks than they did in the regular season?
ILONA BURGROVA: What do you mean by different looks?
Q. Did they surprise you with anything?
ILONA BURGROVA: I think that this game they were able to run a little bit more than they used to in the games before, but otherwise I think they played the same game. They just were successful with it.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, players. Questions for Coach?
Q. How tough when you're shooting poorly in the first half to see someone get hot and put you in hold the way she did?
COACH WALVIUS: It did seem like everything they shot went in the basket. They're competitors. It says a lot about them to come out and play the game the way they did today. Their system didn't change in this game, but they were much more aggressive within their system in this game today. I thought they did a great job, not only offensively, but they did a much better job defending us this game. They did a much better job on the boards this game. Typically we are a good rebounding team. Typically we are a scrappy team and they were able to get to the rim at will and score or get fouled, and I thought they had an excellent game plan and I thought they executed it well.
Q. When Marshae picked up her second foul early on, did you think you'd be able to open up a big lead there?
COACH WALVIUS: No, Florida has got a lot of talent, and one of the things Florida does extremely well, as well as anyone, is attack the rim with penetration. I thought the players that they had come in the game, I thought they did a great job for them, especially on the defensive end. I was hoping that maybe we could get a little bit of a rebounding advantage at that time, but that didn't seem to go in our favor. Again, I thought Florida looked absolutely great today.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.
Interview transcripts: FastScripts by ASAP Sports
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