Jordan Jones (Suwanee, Ga.) scored a game-high 18 points and Florida's defense held UMBC to four field goals in the second half as the Gators defeated the Retrievers, 59-47, in the first round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament on Friday in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
Florida used a 20-3 run early in the second half to turn an eight-point deficit into a 51-42 lead with 11:43 remaining and never trailed again, as UMBC (20-12) managed only one field goal in the final 18:02 of the game, connecting on 4-of-26 in the second frame.
The Gators (19-14) advance to the WNIT second round where they will play Florida Gulf Coast (28-3) on Monday, March 21 at Alico Arena, where tip-off is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. The Eagles defeated Drexel, 73-67, in their opening-round game, when they extended their home winning streak to 42 consecutive games, the third-longest active streak in the country behind only Connecticut (81) and Stanford (61).
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“Obviously, we are very pleased to be able to win and play another day,” UF head coach Amanda Butler said. “There are a lot of things we have to do better and you never know when you have such a huge gap between games, what will happen. We had fantastic practices, but it is a little bit different practicing hard and bringing it to the games. It took us a second to get going but the second half was a little bit more of what we wanted to see based on the practices and preparation that we had.”
Florida found itself on the short end of a 32-31 halftime score, as UMBC shot a healthy 53.8 percent (14-26) from the floor in the first half. It was the 14th time this season the Gators found themselves trailing after the first 20 minutes of action and it was the sixth time they were able to overcome the deficit and rally for the win.
“[Defense] is what I was most disappointed with in the first half,” Butler said. “I didn't have to be disappointed when I came into the locker room with our defensive effort in the first half because [our players] knew that we fell short of the effort we expected in the first 20 minutes. I think that was the change in everything; the change in offensive momentum and the energy that you saw these two (Jaterra Bonds and Jordan Jones), in particular Jordan coming out and hitting a couple of threes. I think a lot of that came from the defensive end and us getting some stops.”
The Retrievers scored the first seven points of the second half and built upon their one-point halftime lead for a 39-31 advantage with 18:02 remaining.
Deana Allen (Houma, La.) finally got Florida on the board in the second half and opened the scoring for the home team, as Allen's bucket sparked a 12-0 run that featured a three-pointer from Jaterra Bonds (Gainesville, Fla.) and seven consecutive points from Jones, all from inside the arc, and Florida regained the lead, 43-39, with 14:08 to play.
Erin Brown ended the Gator spree with a three-pointer that ripped the nets as the shot clock horn sounded, but UF came right back with a three-point play from Ndidi Madu (Antioch, Tenn.) and Jones' third three-pointer of the game and the Gators' lead swelled to seven points.
After Lanita Bartley (Jacksonville, Fla.) chased down a long defensive rebound on the other end, she found Jones who nailed a deep jumper with her toe on the arc and Florida had a 51-42 lead with 11:43 remaining.
UMBC came back with four consecutive points from the free throw line and cut UF's lead to four.
The teams traded one from the charity stripe before Jennifer George (Orlando, Fla.) connected on both ends of a one-and-one with 5:18 on the clock.
Bartley then converted an acrobatic driving layup and gave the Gators a 56-47 lead with 4:41 to play.
Bonds followed with her third trey of the game and Florida held its largest advantage, 59-47, with 3:02 remaining. Those were the final points scored by either team, as the Gators emerged with the victory and won their 11th consecutive non-conference home game.
Jones hit 6-of-8 from the floor, including 3-of-4 three pointers to lead Florida, which sank 8-of-18 from beyond the arc during the game. Bonds added 13 points, while Bartley chipped in nine points with five rebounds and four assists. Madu and George both collected seven rebounds to lead the Gators, which held a 39-31 rebounding edge.
Tope Obajolu scored 16 points and Erin Brown tallied 15 to lead the Retrievers' offensively, while Meghan Colabella brought down a game-high 13 rebounds with nine points.
Neither team showed any signs of a nearly two-week break since its last game, as both hit 4-of-6 from the floor to start, the lone difference in scoring was a Jordan Jones three-pointer and Florida held a 9-8 lead.
The Gators also tried pushing the tempo and committed five quick turnovers during the opening minutes of the game.
The teams cooled off a bit, but Azania Stewart (Wood Green, England) put in a driving layup and grabbed UMBC's ensuing missed shot on the other end, before Jones knocked down her second trey of the half and gave Florida a 14-8 edge and forced UMBC to call a timeout.
The Retrievers settled and came back with the next two buckets and cut the Gator lead to two, 14-12.
UF's ninth turnover of the half resulted in a three-pointer from Michelle Kurowski and UMBC had its first lead of the game, 15-14, with 10:47 on the clock.
That trey began a streak of six straight from deep, three from each team, as Lanita Bartley had two and Jaterra Bonds one during the shoot-out and helped Florida to a 23-21 edge with 7:19 remaining in the half.
Tope Obajolu halted the trend of long-range baskets and tied the game inside with 6:49 on the clock. Erin Brown followed with her third three-pointer of the game and UMBC took a 26-23 lead.
George put back her own miss on UF's end of the floor, before Bonds dropped in a transition layup and Nidid Madu nailed a 17-footer to cap a 6-0 spurt and UMBC called its third timeout of the half to quell the Gators' momentum.
It worked as Meghan Colabella hit a 10-foot jumper and the teams traded baskets for the next minute and the Retrievers slowed the game to a half-court display and closed the half on a 6-2 run and took a 32-31 lead entering the locker room, as Obajolu floated in a turnaround jumper off an in-bounds play with two seconds remaining for the final difference.
The Gators committed 11 turnovers during the first half that the Retrievers converted into 15 points. UMBC also converted 53.8 percent (14-26) of its shots during the opening 20 minutes, including 4-of-8 from long range.
UMBC's Obajolu led all scorers with 12 points, hitting 6-of-8 from the floor, while Bonds had seven points to lead the balanced Gator scoring, as seven different players contributed at least one bucket.
Neither team attempted a free throw in the first half.
Postgame Quotes
Florida Head Coach Amanda Butler
Opening Statement
“Well obviously we are very pleased to be able to win and play another day. There are a lot of things we have to do better and you never know when you have such a huge gap between games, what will happen. We had fantastic practices, but it is a little bit different practicing hard and bringing it to the games. It took us a second to get going but the second half was a little bit more of what we wanted to see based on the practices and preparation that we had.”
On defense
“[Defense] is what I was most disappointed with in the first half. I didn't have to be disappointed when I came into the locker room with our defensive effort in the first half because [our players] knew that we fell short of the effort we expected in the first 20 minutes. I think that was the change in everything; the change in offensive momentum and the energy that you saw these two (Jaterra Bonds and Jordan Jones), in particular Jordan coming out and hitting a couple of threes. I think a lot of that came from the defensive end and us getting some stops.”
On what told team in the locker room at halftime
“It was just that we really worked way too hard this past week to come out and not play defense the way we had played in practice. The games should be fun and easy compared to practice in one sense, but at the same time you should get the reward. When you have practiced as hard as we have the last week, you should get the reward for all the time and effort you put in. The one area in particular that I thought we did a really poor job of was communicating. We didn't do a good job of talking as a unit. We were playing really hard, but we weren't playing smart and talking together very well.”
On working the ball in and out to Azania Stewart
“The obvious advantage we had was our size and post presence and we wanted to take advantage of that. At the same time it (UMBC) is a great program. They had a tremendous season and Phil (Stern) was coach of the year with a couple of First Team All-Conference kids that won the regular season championship. We knew we weren't just going to be able to do one thing the whole game. We knew they would adjust to everything we were doing and I thought they did a good job of making it crowded in there and we didn't do a very good job of being good passers, in particular post passing, and that is usually a strength for us. When you take one thing away from this team, that is when our balance kicks in and our guards obviously stepped up and shouldered more of the scoring burden.”
On Jennifer George's hustle
“I thought everyone on our team played exceptionally hard. Our intensity and aggressiveness were there but we were just a little sloppy. George made a lot of players that were a little less obvious in the stat sheet. With her athleticism and physical presence in the paint, we would like her to keep it simple and just catch and score a little bit more too which I know she will do on Monday.”
On stopping Tope Obajolu in the second half
“We played a little bit more zone in the second than the first. They were doing just a really good job, which we anticipated with a group of juniors and seniors. Their offensive chemistry and effectiveness was really good and it is hard to guard a team like that just one way. I felt like what got us back was our zone defense. That took away a few of Tope's looks.”
Guard Jordan Jones
On mindset coming into today's game
“This time of year it is win or go home and I think there is definitely a different mindset. I have said before that I enjoy this. I enjoy the pressure of coming out here and knowing we have to win in advance and I think my teammates do as well. Like Coach Butler said, we practiced hard all week and it is great to finally play again.”
Guard Jaterra Bonds
On spark coming into the game
“I just wanted to get out there and push the ball. I know Jordan Jones is going to be running on either sideline spotting up for the three, either of our posts are going to be running down, or our guards sprinting so I just tried to get the ball up to someone's hands that is going to be open for a quick and easy shot.”
UMBC Head Coach Phil Stern
Opening Statement:
“I'm quite a bit proud of our effort tonight. You know, we played really hard. We certainly gave them a scare going up by eight in the second half and then we went cold. That's very uncharacteristic of us, it has a lot to do with some of the things they did. We also missed some layups early on and some back doors we don't usually miss as well. But I'm really proud of our effort and I'm proud as a whole coming down here, being in a tough situation going on the road, playing at an SEC school. We really held it together for 40 minutes and again we just didn't make some shots we normally make in the second half.”
On Florida's early run in the second half
“Defensively they came out and picked us up a little, almost 90 feet. They were back in the zone and they're bigger and faster than what we're used to, but we knew that. We played Maryland and Virginia this year. We didn't knock down shots that we normally knock down against the zone. Maybe we were a little tired. Also, we're a rhythm team and we've played about 2 games in 20 days - this is maybe the third game in 21 days and that certainly doesn't help but a lot of our misses were because of them.”
On defending Jordan Jones:
“We knew we wanted to lock and trail on her and we wanted to make her put the ball on the floor. They got her in transition a couple times which hurt us and we talked about obviously stopping the ball and then finding her in transition. But listen, she's a great shooter and they have great penetrators to get her the ball and that's really important for someone like her and she did a great job of knocking down shots. She got hot. We wanted to run her off the 3-point line but she got some open looks.”
Postgame Notes
UF Team Notes
-With tonight's win, Florida moves to 19-14 overall
-The Gators now have a 2-0 record all-time versus UMBC and an 8-0 record against the America East Conference.
-Head coach Amanda Butler is now 117-75 overall, 76-53 at Florida and holds a 4-3 record in postseason play at Florida.
-UF's bench outscored UMBC's bench 17-2 and had 11 fast break points to UMBC's 0.
-Florida outscored UMBC 28-15 in the second half, marking the third-best second-half point differential this season.
-Six different Gators stole the ball for a total of 13, the second-most all season.
-Florida is 6-8 when trailing at halftime this season.
-The win was UF's 11th consecutive non-conference home victory
UF Individual Notes
-With her 18 points, Jordan Jones has led the Gators in scoring a team-high nine times.
-Jennifer Georgia stole the ball a season-high four times, the most since recording five on January 14, 2010 vs. Tennessee.
-Jaterra Bonds tallied 13 points for her 11th double-figure scoring game of the season.
-Azania Stewart blocked one shot versus the Retrievers, making it the 130th blocked shot of her career.
-Jennifer George had two blocks in the game, which include the 75th of her career
-Deana Allen tied her career-high with her five assists. She also recorded five assists at Vanderbilt on Feb. 25, 2011.
