Led by a career-high 22 points from freshman Jaterra Bonds (Gainesville, Fla.), the University of Florida women's basketball team (17-13, 7-9 SEC) upset No. 22 Georgia (20-9, 10-6 SEC) on Senior Day Sunday afternoon at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
Just like their SEC-opening win on Jan. 2, the Gators closed their regular season at home with an upset of the nation's 22nd-ranked team, defeating then-No. 22 Arkansas, 64-53. Sunday's win for the Orange and Blue was the first time in the long series history against Georgia that Florida won three consecutive at home versus the Lady Bulldogs.
The win also marked the 45th upset win over a higher-ranked team in program history, as well as the 26-th time Florida has earned a win against a ranked opponent when UF entered the match-up unranked.
· WATCH the postgame interview with Coach Amanda Butler, Jaterra Bonds, Ebonie Crawford and Jordan Jones – FREE courtesy of GatorVision OnLine
"I am just really proud for many reasons and I'm especially happy for our Georgia girl (Ebonie Crawford) to be able to celebrate her Senior Day this way,” UF head coach Amanda Butler said. “The individual efforts were great from Jordan (Jones) and Jaterra (Bonds), but when we are playing our best, it is truly a team effort, and we are getting a little bit of something from everyone. That is certainly what happened. I am just really happy and proud for our team and I feel like they got what they deserved; we prepared hard and had a lot of adversity this week, and just came through it like champs."
With Georgia holding a slim 71-70 lead sophomore Jennifer George (Orlando, Fla.) put in a layup with 48 seconds remaining and gave the Gators a one-point lead.
Georgia's Khaalidah Miller missed a jumper with 24 seconds remaining and Azania Stewart (Wood Green, England) wrestled for the defensive board that she tossed to Bonds, who was fouled and made the front end of the one-and-one and gave UF a 73-71 lead with 22.6 seconds on the clock.
On Georgia's next possession, Jordan Jones (Suwanee, Ga.) took a charge from a driving Meredith Mitchell with 10.3 seconds left, forcing Georgia to foul again when UF in-bounded the ball.
Lanita Bartley (Jacksonville, Fla.), who solidified the Gators' win at Vanderbilt with four free throws in the final 13.6 seconds, stepped to the line and hit one of two on Sunday with 9.4 seconds remaining that gave the Gators a three-point lead, 74-71, and ended the game's scoring as Georgia failed to get off a shot in its final possession.
The game featured eight ties and seven lead changes, with neither team leading by more than eight points. Florida's bench came up big, outscoring the Lady Bulldogs', 36-7. Florida's defense clamped down from long-range, holding UGA to just 21.4 percent shooting from beyond the three-point line (3-of-14 3FG). The Gators finished the day shooting 39.1 percent from long range (9-of-23), including 5-of-10 from Bonds and 3-of-6 from Jones, who finished second with 18 points. Nine of UF's 10 players that saw game action scored.
Georgia stayed in the game thanks in part to its post presence, which doubled-up UF's production in the paint (36-18) and outscored the Gators in second-chance points, 24-13. The Bulldogs' frontcourt also outrebounded UF, 43-38, including a 22-13 margin on the offensive glass.
With Georgia owning its biggest lead of the game at eight (31-23) with 2:55 remaining in the first frame, the Gators went on a 19-4 run over the last three minutes of the first half and the first three minutes of the second to swing the lead in UF's favor by a game-high seven points (42-35).
Four of Georgia's starting five scored double figures, including guard Jasmine James, who poured in a game-high 23 points of 10-of-13 shooting. Forward Porsha Phillips collected the game's only double-double with 15 points and 17 rebounds, while fellow forward Anne Marie Armstrong and Miller tallied 12 and 11 points, respectively.
The first half ended with a 12-4 run by UF over the last three minutes, as Bonds caught fire with two consecutive three-point shots. Trailing 35-29 with a minute and a half left in the first period, redshirt junior Ndidi Madu (Antioch, Tenn.) and freshman Brittany Shine (Sacramento, Calif.) knocked down jumpers, and senior Ebonie Crawford (Decatur, Ga.) sank two free throws on her own Senior Day to tie the game at 35-all going into halftime.
Florida was led by a balanced attack from Bonds and Jones, who finished the first half with eight points and seven points, each. The Gators outshot the Lady Bulldogs in the first half, 46.2 percent to 40 percent, while holding Georgia to just 16.7 percent from beyond the three-point arc.
Most of the first-half scoring by UF was done by the bench, outscoring Georgia's, 16-5. The Bulldogs were able to stay in the game with their post presence, outscoring UF down low, 20-10, while owning a plus-seven margin in second-chance points in the first 20 minutes (15-8).
The Lady Bulldogs' top two scorers, James and Phillips, also led UGA in the first half. James finished the first 20 minutes with a game-high 13 points, while Phillips nearly had a double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds.
The Gators now turn their attention to the SEC Tournament, which begins Thursday, March 3 in Nashville, Tenn., where Bridgestone Arena plays host to the 12-team, four-day event. Florida earned the No. 8 seed and will play No. 9-seeded Arkansas at 1 p.m. ET (Noon CT), with the winner advancing to face top-seeded and fourth-ranked Tennessee on Friday.
POSTGAME NOTES
TEAM
-UF is now 17-13 overall, 11-4 at home and 7-9 in the SEC.
-For the first time in school history, Florida has beaten Georgia at home for the third straight year.
-The Gators enter the SEC Tournament riding a three-game winning streak.
-UF's last five games in the series with UGA have been decided by single digits.
-Florida is 2-4 against nationally-ranked teams this year; and has tallied 45 upset victories over higher-ranked opponents, 26 of them coming when UF has not been ranked.
-Head coach Amanda Butler earned her 75th win in her fourth season with the Gators.
-The Gators have won their second consecutive game despite being outrebounded in both.
-Florida is now 2-0 when the score is tied at halftime (vs. South Carolina, Florida won 65-63).
-UF shot 76.0 percent from the charity stripe (19-of-25), its fifth-highest mark of the season.
-The Gators will play Arkansas as the No. 8 seed in the first round of the SEC tournament on Thursday.
Individual
-Today's game marked senior Ebonie Crawford's last regular-season appearance in the O' Connell Center. Crawford played two minutes and recorded two free throws and tied the score at 35 with 1.4 seconds remaining before halftime.
-Redshirt junior Jordan Jones has made at least one three-pointer in 25 out of Florida's 28 games and has scored in all 28.
-Junior Lanita Bartley recorded four assists, giving her 103 on the year.
-Freshman Jaterra Bonds scored a career-high 22 points to lead the Gators, including 12 second-half points and 2-of-2 free throws in the final minute.
-Bonds and Jones have each tallied double-digits in 12 games this season.
-Junior Deana Allen pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. It is the second-highest mark for Allen, who had 13 when the Gators traveled to Georgia.
POST-GAME QUOTES
FLORIDA HEAD COACH AMANDA BUTLER
Opening Remarks:
"I am just really proud for many reasons, and especially happy for our Georgia girl (Ebonie Crawford) to be able to celebrate her Senior Day this way, and with the play she made at the end of the first half that gave us momentum going into the locker room. The individual efforts were great from Jordan and Jaterra, but when we are playing our best, it is truly a team effort, and we are getting a little bit of something from everyone. That is certainly what happened. I am just really happy and proud for our team and I feel like they got what they deserved. We prepared hard and had a lot of adversity this week, and just came through it like champs."
"I think that we had some things earlier this season that allowed doubt to creep in and if one shot falls differently, then it is not an issue, but it became an issue and we are handling it and have grown up. We have matured in a lot of ways and like I said, I think that this team is getting a lot of things they deserve now."
#50 Ebonie Crawford, Sr., C
On today's game being the highlight of her senior season
"It definitely has to be hitting those two free-throws to close out the first half, and that was a big moment for me and just making sure I could do everything possible to get to where we needed to be and for our team to get the win. In the locker room at halftime, I told the team it was going to take all of us and we were all going to do it and come home with that 'W' so I was pretty excited."
#33 Jordan Jones, R-Jr., G
On the win
"It is a total team effort, and I think that Jaterra tonight put us on her back. I think all of us have that mentality that we all want the ball, and I guess sometimes that can be a good thing or a bad thing, but definitely in clutch moments I think you could line us all up and we could ask Coach Butler to draw up a play for us. In the last two games, things have worked out and we have gotten wins, but it definitely has not been me trying to do everything - it has been a collective effort."
On taking a charge with 10.3 seconds remaining
“At the beginning of the season, Coach Butler was telling me that I hadn't taken any charges all year and I really wasn't putting myself in the position to take charges. So ever since then, I have it in my mind on every defensive play and in the timeout before she challenged one of us to step up and take a charge and when I saw the opportunity I just closed my eyes and hoped that she would call a charge."
#10 Jaterra Bonds, Fr., G
On her career-high performance
"Tonight I was just feeling it, so if I was open and the shot looked good, then I was going to take it. I just wanted to make sure we got the win for the team and most importantly for Ebonie to finish out her senior season in a good way."
GEORGIA HEAD COACH ANDY LANDERS
“Well we did miss a lot. There was a lot of effort today from our players, but unfortunately we didn't play as good as we needed to play. When you are on the road you have to do better with your layups and free throws than we did. The other things were we seized the moment and turned the tide and then we got in a hurry. We stopped our own momentum.”
“Well you certainly want to go up there and get a win. We finished the season here on a down note with three losses, so we need to snap back and go up there and get a few wins.”
“Team-wise I thought we played pretty well, but I thought that they did a great job of finding each other when they were open and running in transition and making plays. Really in the second half, they did a great job of executing their plays and finding a good option. So offensively I thought we executed well, again it is unfortunate that we missed eight or nine layups. That is a lot of points to leave on the table.”
