Guards Trumae Lucas (Greensboro, N.C.) and Steffi Sorensen (Jacksonville, Fla.) both scored a team-high 13 points and the No. 15/19 (AP/USA Today-ESPN) University of Florida women's basketball team weathered a strong second-half charge by Ole Miss to notch a 75-54 win against the Lady Rebels at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center in front of 4,623 fans, the eighth-largest crowd in school history.
“Plays were being made all over the floor today – offense, defense and rebounding,” Florida head coach Amanda Butler said. “It was a fantastic team win. I've said that a lot this year, but even when I've said it there has been that one person to score 20 or 25 points in the game. We just had such great balance with our minutes, our rebounding, our scoring and just overall with our playmaking.”
The Gators (18-2, 4-1 Southeastern Conference), who notched their first win against Ole Miss in Gainesville since Feb. 28, 2003, placed four players in double-figure scoring, with Sorensen nearly earning her first double-double with a career-high nine boards to complement her 13 points.
Senior guard Sha Brooks (Jackson, Tenn.) and senior forward Marshae Dotson (Columbus, Ohio) each added 11 points, as Brooks moved into sole possession of sixth place on Florida's career scoring list, passing Brandi McCain (1998-02). Brooks now has 1,589 career points.
Junior forward Sharielle Smith (Bradenton, Fla.) led the effort on the boards with a game-high 10 rebounds, as the Gators out-rebounded the Lady Rebels, 48-38, and dominated points in the paint, 36-24.
Florida had seven players score five or more points in the game and the Gator bench outscored Ole Miss' reserves, 31-10, paced by a career-high 13 points from Lucas.
“One of our game goals was that our bench had to out-play their bench in order for us to be successful,” Butler said. “I think we have enough tools, versatility and depth that if we set the tone early, we can keep coming at teams in so many different ways. I think that's why it's hard for other people to adjust to our teams.”
For the game, the Gators shot 41.5 percent (27-of-65) from the floor, while limiting the Rebels to 30.5 percent (18-of-59) efficiency from the field.
Heading into Sunday's game, eight of Florida's 10 previous meetings with the Rebels had been decided by single digits, including each of the last three meetings. Late in the second half, it appeared as if that might happen again.
With Ole Miss trailing Florida 60-37 and 6:38 remaining following a basket by Brooks, the Rebels engineered a 13-0 run over the next 2:30 to cut within 10, 60-50. With the momentum seeming to shift in favor of the Rebels, Butler called a 30-second timeout to regroup her team.
“I think you have to give Ole Miss credit,” Butler said. “We've talked about the fact that our teams are very similar with their styles and strengths. We knew that the difference in the ballgame was going to be toughness and the tone we set early. Our game is a 40-minute game. You know there are going to be runs and adversity. We knew they would make a run and I was most proud of the way we answered it and finished the ballgame.”
Out of the break, Lucas drilled a 3-pointer from the deep left corner in front of the Florida bench to stop the Gators' scoring drought and put them ahead, 63-50.
“I just knew that we had to keep being aggressive and I knew that they were going to try to trap on the wings,” Lucas said. “I just spread out on the wing, Sha found me and I was able to knock it down. Coach always tells us to be ready on the bench. You can never count on one person or two people to carry the team, so I'm always ready to step up.”
From there, the Gators held the Rebels without a field goal for the next 2:27 and expanded their advantage out to 21 points to make the final margin.
Florida took a 37-19 advantage into the locker room at intermission – its largest halftime lead in a conference game this season at 18 points – thanks to a 14-2 run over the final 8:46 of the first period. The Gators limited Ole Miss to just 21.4 percent (6-of-28) shooting in the first half and scored 16 points off of 13 miscues by the Lady Rebels.
Florida broke out to a 12-4 advantage to begin the game, as Dotson scored the Gators' first nine points of the contest. A 3-pointer by Sorensen, which extended her streak of consecutive games with a 3-pointer to 15, capped off the run at the 14:15 mark of the opening half. Florida extended its advantage to 19-7 when Sorensen knocked down a deep 3-pointer from the right wing near the Ole Miss bench that brought the crowd to its feet.
The two teams traded baskets, but the Rebels were able to whittle down their deficit thanks to a couple of 3-pointers that brought them within eight, 23-15, with 9:16 remaining until intermission. After a pair of Ole Miss free throws, Florida began its 14-2 run to close the period.
Both teams started the second half slow, trading baskets for much of the first eight minutes of the final period, before a 3-pointer by Lonnika Thompson (New Orleans, La.) from the left corner at the 12:01 mark sparked a 7-0 run by the Gators that put them ahead by 25, 55-30, with 9:58 to go before the Rebels began making their late-game comeback.
Ole Miss (13-7, 2-3 SEC) was led by Bianca Thomas' game-high 18 points and seven rebounds. Shawn Goff added 12 points and seven boards in a full 40 minutes of action.
“I think Florida is a really, really good basketball team,” said Ole Miss head coach Renee Ladner, a former Florida assistant coach. “I think Coach Butler is doing an incredible job. I think they are playing with a lot of confidence and the crowd was a big factor tonight. We've shown tendencies to go into facilities with a lot of noise and not play very well and, ultimately, we've got to find ways to handle that.
"We knew Florida was a talented team," Ladner continued. “We spent a lot of time on the press in practice this week, but we were shell-shocked. The first thing on our scouting report was 'turnovers fuel Florida.' We felt pretty good coming in - we had good practices - but we just did not come in today and play good basketball."
Prior to the game's tip-off, a moment of silence was held in honor of Kay Yow, the longtime head women's basketball coach at N.C. State and one of the game's most well-known ambassadors, who passed away early Saturday morning following a long battle with cancer.
Florida concludes its three-game homestand on Thursday, when it plays host to Kentucky. Tip-off in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center is slated for 7 p.m. EST and the game will be carried live on SEC-TV (FSN South, FSN Southwest and Sun Sports).
POST-GAME NOTES
· Florida improves to 18-2 overall and 4-1 in the Southeastern Conference, while Ole Miss falls 13-7 overall, 2-3 SEC.
· The last time the Gators started their SEC season with a 4-1 record was during the 2000-01 campaign.
· Florida now leads the all-time series with Ole Miss 15-12.
o The Gators defeated the Rebels in Gainesville for the first time since Feb. 28, 2003.
· The Gators have now won 297 home games in program history and need just three more home wins to reach 300.
· UF won its 400th game played anywhere in the state of Florida. The Gators are 400-187 all-time within the Sunshine State.
· Sunday's game was played in front of 4,623 fans, the eighth-best home attendance in school history.
· The Gators are now 11-0 at home this season, with an overall 12-game home winning streak, the fourth-longest in program history.
· Senior guard Sha Brooks had 11 points in the game to move into sole possession of sixth place on the school's all-time career scoring list with 1,589 career points.
o Brooks moved past Brandi McCain (1998-02), one of the best point guards in Florida school history, who scored 1,580 points during her career. It's fitting that it would be McCain that Brooks would pass, as the they are the only two players in school history to score at least 1,500 points, dish out at least 275 assists and collect at least 200 steals in their careers.
· Junior guard Steffi Sorensen extended her streak of consecutive games with a three-pointer to 15. That ties her with former Gator Tashia Morehead for the fifth-longest consecutive 3-point streak in school history.
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