Gators Travel to South Carolina Thursday in Search of First SEC Road Win
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 | Women's Basketball
The 19th-ranked University of Florida women's basketball team travels to Columbia, S.C., to play South Carolina on Thursday, Jan. 15. Tip-off for the Southeastern Conference showdown is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and will be televised live by COX Sports (cable channel 67 in Gainesville).
Thursday's game is huge for both Florida and South Carolina.
The Gators (15-2, 1-1 SEC) are trying to get back in the win column after having their program-record 15-game win streak halted on Sunday at No. 9/8 Auburn, in addition to trying to regroup from having lost starting guard Jennifer Mossor to a knee injury for the remainder of the season.
Not only did the Gators lose a game for the first time since its season-opener on Nov. 14th, Florida shot 34.9 percent (22-63) overall from the floor, the first time the Gators have shot below 40 percent this season. Auburn hit 56.4 percent (31-55), becoming the first UF opponent to shoot better than 50 percent this year.
The Tigers also out-scored the Gators, 38-20, in the paint and limited Florida to just 13 second-chance points after the Gators had collected 22 offensive rebounds.
Having shot a season-low in its last outing, Florida will really need to focus on its shooting touch against the defensive-minded Gamecocks, who allow just 60.7 points per game.
“South Carolina is a really, really tough, gritty team. They have a new coach and they don't have Jordan Jones (who transferred to UF at the end of last season), and those are two very big differences from last year,” UF head coach Amanda Butler said. “They are playing tough, half-court man defense. They are really physical and get after people.
“They played one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country. They've lost two SEC ballgames, but to Auburn by four points and at Georgia by six so their record is in no way an indication of how good they are or how good they can be,” Butler continued. “One of the biggest things is that we are going 'to' South Carolina and they are hungry for their first SEC win so we have to be ready.”
The Gamecocks (8-7, 0-2 SEC) have lost both SEC contests by very slim margins, dropping their opener to Auburn, 80-76, and falling at Georgia, 69-63, on Sunday.
Senior Brionna Dickerson has turned her game up a notch in the early portion of the SEC schedule, leading the Gamecocks with 19.0 points in their first two games, hitting 7-of-14 from the three-point arc. She is one of only two players who have started every game this year, when she has been contributing 12.2 points, with 19-of-55 (34.5%) coming from beyond the arc.
Fellow senior Demetress Adams is the other Gamecock who has also started every game, as she is tallying 11.5 points and a team-leading 7.3 rebounds, while shooting 51.1 percent from the floor and 78.3 percent from the three throw line.
On the sideline, South Carolina is under the first-year direction of Dawn Staley, who spent the previous eight years running Temple's program. The Owls competed in the Atlantic 10 Conference, where current UF head coach Amanda Butler formerly guided Charlotte to the 2006 regular-season title. Staley has become a familiar face to the Gators, who last season wrapped up a five-game home-and-home series with Temple.
Seniors Sha Brooks and Marshae Dotson were voted as First Team All-SEC performers during the preseason and both showed why during Florida's league-opener on Jan. 8 against Mississippi State and carried UF in spite of the loss at Auburn (Jan. 11).
Against the Lady Bulldogs, Brooks scored a career-high 31 points and became the first Gator to score at least 30 in a game since Dec. 22, 2003, when Bernice Mosby scored 30 vs. George Washington. Against the Lady Bulldogs, Brooks also dished six assists, grabbed six rebounds and collected four steals.
Dotson poured in 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting against the taller Lady Bulldogs, while collecting nine rebounds and a career-high-tying five steals. On Sunday at Auburn, Dotson scored a team-high 13 points with eight rebounds, heading up UF's rebounding charge that resulted in a 39-32 edge over the taller Tigers.
Brooks and Dotson are the only two Gators averaging a double-figure scoring effort, headlining UF's potent and very balanced attack. Brooks leads the team in scoring (14.3 ppg), assists (71), steals (28), free throws made (68) and free throws attempted (83). In addition to 12.1 points per game, Dotson leads UF in rebounding (7.2 pg), field goal percentage (58.9%) and offensive rebounds (59).
Junior Sharielle Smith quietly overtook Dotson for the rebounding lead two weeks ago, but moved behind the veteran, with a 7.1 per game mark, just three total rebounds behind Dotson. Smith also averages 9.5 points overall, including a 10.5 tally in SEC games. In the last six games, Smith has hauled in 8.8 rebounds per game, the top average over that span.
Junior Steffi Sorensen has been leading the Gators' outside shooting barrage and enters Thursday's game having hit at least one 3-pointer 12 consecutive games, tied for the seventh-longest streak in program history. Sorensen has connected on at least one from long range in all except two games this season and has totaled 39 treys, the second-most by an SEC athlete this season.
Entering Thursday's game against South Carolina, Brooks has started 108 consecutive games - one shy of the all-time record. Brooks, who has never missed a game during her career, has started all but one game during her collegiate tenure (started 110 of 111 games). Her streak is the second-longest in program history, trailing only Murriel Page (1994-98), who started the final 109 games of her All-American career.
Brooks also needs just two more made free throws to become UF's all-time leader in the category. She enters Thursday's game with 363 in her career, trailing only former All-American DeLisha Milton, who converted 364 from 1993-97. Brooks is the only guard who ranks among the top-5 all-time, having recently passed Tamara Stocks (343), Murriel Page (334) and Rhvonja Smith (299).
The Gators hold a 16-8 lead in the all-time series against the Gamecocks, including a 8-3 record in games played in Columbia. The clubs met three times last season, when each won on the other's home court, before Florida took the season-series with a dominating 71-57 victory in the first round of the SEC Tournament.
The two regular-season match-ups, however, were battles until the end, with the Gators taking the 60-57 thriller in Columbia, before the Gamecocks spoiled Depree Bowden's senior day by earning the 69-65 decision in Gainesville.
Jordan Jones, a 5-foot-9 sophomore, transferred to UF from the University of South Carolina in June of 2008 and is required to sit out the 2008-09 season per NCAA rules for transfers, but will have three years of eligibility remaining beginning in 2009-10.
In the three games last year against Florida, Jones totaled 36 points, including a team-high 16 points on 5-of-9 from the three-point arc in the Gamecock's win in Gainesville.
Jones led USC in scoring last year, netting 13.1 ppg. She set the South Carolina freshman record with 97 three-pointers made and shot 39.9 percent (97-243) from 3-point range to rank third in the SEC, 31st in the nation and eighth in school history. Jones led the SEC and ranked third in the country with 3.03 three-pointers made per game.
The Gators had been able to overcome a number of different injuries until Jan. 8, when junior guard Jennifer Mossor suffered a season-ending knee injury with 12:38 remaining in the game against Mississippi State. She went up for a non-contact layup and tore the ACL in her right knee.
Florida had just enjoyed the return of freshman center Azania Stewart to the floor, as she entered the Mississippi State game (Jan. 8) at the 6:37 mark of the first half. She had been sidelined with a left hip-flexor strain suffered during the game against FAMU (Dec. 12) for the previous four games. Stewart had a kidney removed on Sept. 10, 2008, shortly after doctors discovered that she had a non-functioning kidney that became infected. Recovering from the surgery kept her away from basketball and conditioning for nearly six weeks, however, Stewart was back on the court at practice on Oct. 21st and played in every game prior to the game against Pittsburgh (Dec. 21).
Game Day Information
What: Florida (15-2, 1-1 SEC) at South Carolina (8-7, 0-2 SEC)
When: Thursday, January 15, 2009 * 7 p.m. ET
Where: Columbia, S.C. * Colonial Life Arena (18,000)
Radio: LIVE on WRUF AM850 in Gainesville; audio simulcast on Cox Channel 96 with Steve Babik & Steve Russell
Internet Audio: LIVE thru GatorZone.com (FREE of charge)
Streaming Internet Video: none
Television: LIVE on Cox Sports (Cox Cable channel 67 in Gainesville) with Mick Hubert & Mark Wise
Post-Game Satellite Feed: none
-UF-
