For the first five minutes of the second half, Florida played inspiring defense that forced three timeouts for Georgia, which was able to regroup, maintain its composure, use keen outside shooting and use a 14-0 run late in the game to pull away and earn an 84-75 win in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Marshae Dotson (Columbus, Ohio) scored a game-high 22 points, while Steffi Sorensen (Jacksonville, Fla.) tied her career-high of 15 points and Sha Brooks (Jackson, Tenn.) tallied 13 points with seven assists, but it wasn't enough as the Lady Bulldogs (17-12, 7-7 SEC) out-scored the Gators' bench, 39-14, and held a 42-30 advantage in the paint.
Porsha Phillips led five Georgia players with a double-figure scoring effort, hitting 20 points with eight rebounds, as the Lady Bulldogs connected on 52.4 percent from the field.
“It was real simple what happened tonight. We played five minutes of great defense and that was it,” UF head coach Amanda Butler said. “The other 35 minutes, Georgia controlled with their offense. If you're going to go and steal a win on someone else's court, you're going to do it with tough defense and rebounding. We did rebound the ball on the offensive end, but we let them score at-will. The disappointing part is how we let them score. Porsha Phillips scored how she scores point. Angel Robinson scored how she scores points. Danielle Taylor hit her elbow jump shots. They took what we gave them and they hit everything. Aside from the first five minutes of the second half, we didn't take anything away from them.”
Florida (23-6, 9-5 SEC) exploded out of the halftime locker room scoring the first nine points while forcing five turnovers to take a 47-45 lead, their largest of the game to that point. Georgia called three timeouts during those first three-plus minutes.
Ashley Houts stopped the run with a pull-up 10-footer in the paint to even the score, but Brooks nailed a deep jumper and Sorensen came up with a energetic play, as she saved a ball on the defensive end and flung it down court to a streaking Trumae Lucas (Greensboro, N.C.), who converted the layup that gave the Gators a 51-47 lead with 15:40 remaining.
The teams traded buckets before Houts converted a three-point play and dropped UF's lead to one, 53-52. Florida came right back with a power move inside from Dotson and a short transition bucket from Brooks that gave the Gators a 57-52 lead with 12:14 on the clock.
Following another exchange in scores, Georgia ripped off a game-changing 14-0 run, during which Florida missed a trio of chip-shots under the bucket, and reclaimed the lead, 68-59, with 5:46 to go.
Sorensen finally ended the run with a three-pointer from the left side at the 5:26 mark and dropped the deficit to six. Georgia then hit one free throw, before Sorensen nailed her fourth trey of the game and brought the Gators within four points, 69-65, with 4:23 remaining. Florida's leader from beyond the arc, Sorensen's second three-pointer of that spurt was the Gators' 10th of the game, marking the eighth time this season the team has connected on double-digit treys.
The teams then traded scores, with Georgia's a dagger three-pointer from Angela Puleo, who sparked a 10-2 march and the Gators never recovered.
Georgia shot a blistering 52.4 percent (33-63) from the floor, becoming just the third team to hit better than half its shots against the Gators this year.
Florida managed just 38.5 percent from the field, just the fourth time this season the Gators had hit less than 40 percent of its attempts.
The shots were falling inside Stegeman Coliseum as fast the snow was accumulating outside, as Georgia hit 5-of-8 to start and Florida canned 5-of-9 in the first 4:33 of the game. Both teams nailed a pair of three-pointers during the run, tying the score at 12 with 15:27 to go in the first half.
Florida got good scoring balance during the opening run, with Marshae Dotson (Columbus, Ohio), Sharielle Smith (Bradenton, Fla.), Sha Brooks (Jackson, Tenn.) and Steffi Sorensen (Jacksonville, Fla.) all knocking down shots.
The Lady Bulldogs continued to sizzle and used a 7-0 spurt during a mini dry spell for the Gators to take a 21-15 lead. Lonnika Thompson (New Orleans, La.) ended the drought with UF's fourth three-pointer of the half to get the Gators within three, 21-18, at the 12:17 mark.
Jaleesa Rhoden came right back with a trey for the Dawgs to keep the six-point cushion. The teams traded buckets before Thompson nailed a 16-footer and Trumae Lucas (Greensboro, N.C.) sank a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to two, 26-24, with 8:02 to go.
Florida played tough defense on its next handful of possessions and was able to tied the game with an inside bucket from Azania Stewart (Wood Green, England) with 6:51 on the clock. The teams again traded baskets, before Georgia used a 6-0 run to begin a 16-4 march, as the Dawgs took an 11-point lead, 41-32, with just over a minute remaining in the period.
In the final minute of the half, Sorensen nailed a deep three-pointer, followed by a inside jumper from UG's Danielle Taylor before Brooks capped the opening stanza hitting a trey with two seconds on the clock, as the Gators whittled the deficit to seven points, 45-38, entering the locker room.
Florida turned the ball over 10 times during the first half, resulting in 13 Georgia points, while the Bulldogs held an 18-17 rebounding edge and shot 52.8 percent (19-36) from the field compared to the 48.4 percent (15-31) effort for the Gators.
The Gators secured the No. 4 seed in the 12-team Southeastern Conference Tournament, which begins with first-round action on Thursday, March 5 at Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Ark. As one of the top-four seeds, however, Florida earned a first-round bye and will play the winner of the game between No. 5-seed Tennessee and No. 12-seed Alabama on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET (6:30 p.m. CT).
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