Senior Sha Brooks (Jackson, Tenn.) scored 25 points and led Florida's school-record three-point shooting brigade in a 94-78 victory over Arkansas Sunday at Bud Walton Arena.
The Gators hit 13 treys en route to winning their fifth consecutive game in the Southeastern Conference, tying for the second-longest league win streak in program history, as Florida remained in a tie atop the conference standings with a 6-1 record, matched by Auburn and Vanderbilt.
The victory also marked the 20th of the season for Florida (20-2), the 10th time the Gators have reached the 20-win plateau and the first time since the 2005-06 season.
Five different Gators contributed in the long-range shooting barrage that eclipsed the previous record of 11 that had occurred six different times. Brooks hit a team-high 4-of-7, while Steffi Sorensen (Jacksonville, Fla.) went 3-for-6, Lonnika Thompson (New Orleans, La.) hit 3-of-5, Susan Yenser (Marietta, Ga.) tallied 2-of-2 and Sharielle Smith (Bradenton, Fla.) connected on her lone attempt, all contributing to Florida's 13-of-21 effort.
“We continued to show our versatility as scorers and our '3's were falling tonight,” said UF head coach Amanda Butler, who joined Debbie Yow as the only other Gator coaches to win 20 games in their second season on the sideline. “When you're on the road, you never expect to shoot that well, but when you do, you have a chance to beat someone on their home floor. Our threes were very timely, too, always seeming to come when they would cut into our lead.”
Brooks, who reached double-figure scoring for the 12th consecutive game, also dished a career-high 10 assists to produce her first career double-double.
“Sometimes I feel like a broken record talking about Sha Brooks and everything she brings to our team,” Butler praised. “It seems like every time we need a big bucket or a defensive play, Sha is the one who is in the middle of it. She had 25 points and 10 assists which are numbers she brings almost every night.”
Marshae Dotson (Columbus, Ohio) contributed 16 points, hitting 6-of-7 from the floor and 4-of-6 at the free throw line. Thompson tied her career-high of 16 points, hitting 6-of-12 from the field, while Sorensen tallied 11 points, as she connected on a three-pointer for the 17th consecutive game, the fourth-longest streak in Gator history.
Steffi Sorensen nailed a three-pointer just moments into the second half to give the Gators a 42-30 lead, helping spark a 16-7 run that fueled Florida to a 55-37 lead. Sharielle Smith converted a three-point play during the march, while Susan Yenser became the fifth different Gator to sink a trey shortly before Sorensen connected on her third long-range shot and Lonnika Thompson added her second of the game to cap the spree.
Arkansas kept chipping away at the lead and got within 13 points before the Gators ripped off a 12-0 spurt that featured buckets from Yenser, Azania Stewart (Wood Green, England) and Brooks, including the record-setting trey at the 10:53 mark by Brooks, as Florida's lead swelled to 25 points, 72-47, with 9:50 to go in the game.
The Razorbacks refused to fold and mounted a 10-0 run over the next two-plus minutes the cut the Gator lead to 15 points with 7:22 remaining.
Trumae Lucas (Greensboro, N.C.) ended the UA run after a driving layup and the teams traded buckets for the next minute. Arkansas did get within 12 points, 77-65, with 5:30 on the clock, but Brooks hit a pair of technical foul free throws to start a 9-0 run and the Gators never looked back en route to the win.
Florida shot 53.3 percent (32-60) overall from the floor and hit 77.3 percent (17-22) from the free throw line to complete an outstanding shooting display for the game. The Gators also won the rebounding battle, 33-29.
Ayana Brereton and Lindsay Harris both scored 17 points to lead the Razorbacks (12-10, 1-6 SEC), who shot 50 percent from the floor (27-54), including 8-of-20 from beyond the arc.
The Gators were hot from the three-point arc, where they canned 3-of-5 a little over four minutes into the game to grab a quick 13-5 lead that forced an Arkansas timeout. Brooks nailed two during the run, while Smith hit one from the top of the key. Overall, UF connected on five of its first eight shots, with Sorensen and Marshae Dotson knocking down buckets from inside the arc.
Brooks dropped in her third trey of the game shortly after the timeout, but Ayana Brereton came right back with a 3-pointer and hit a layup off a defensive rebound outlet that started a 7-1 run that dipped Florida's lead to five, 17-12, with 12:46 to go in the first half.
Brooks halted the run with a 16-foot jumper after juking an Arkansas defender to spark a 7-0 Gator run, as Dotson powered in a short shot in the pain and Thompson nailed UF's fifth 3-pointer of the period that gave the visitors a 24-12 lead.
Ashley McCray halted the spree, but Dotson came back with a hook shot over the outstretched 6-foot-3 McCray that began a trend of trading buckets for almost the next five minutes. Dotson broke up the alternating scores with consecutive successful possessions that gave Florida a 37-22 lead with 4:19 to go.
Those would the last points for the Gators over the next four-plus minutes, as Arkansas took advantage of the draught with a 8-0 march and got within seven points before Brooks converted a tough long jumper with two seconds on the clock to end the half and send the Gators into the halftime locker room with a 39-30 lead.
Both teams shot almost with the same accuracy in the first half, with Florida hitting 46.9 percent and Arkansas 46.2 percent, but the difference was the Gators' long-range touch, as they connected on 6-of-11 with four different players hitting a trey, while the Razorbacks were 2-of-8 from deep.
Brooks accounted for 14 points and Dotson 10 to lead the first-half scoring for UF, which held a 18-14 rebounding edge.
The Gators continue their road swing on Thursday, when they travel to Tuscaloosa to play Alabama. Tip-off from Coleman Coliseum is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT) and will be televised live on Comcast Sports South (CSS).
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