Finish to Gators' Regular Season Worth a Fist Pump
Sunday, February 28, 2016 | Women's Basketball, Scott Carter
The UF women's basketball team finishes the regular season 22-7 after going 13-17 last year
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- When it was over, Amanda Butler let out a fist pump. And then another one. The Florida women's basketball coach had reason to be giddy late Sunday afternoon.
On the day four months ago when Butler spent several hours at the SEC Network headquarters for SEC Media Day in Charlotte, N.C., she heard a lot about how her team was expected to struggle.
The media picked the Gators to finish 12th in the 14-team league and to miss the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive season.
Some wondered about Butler's future at her alma mater. In the offseason she brought in three new players and two new assistant coaches to reverse her team's fortunes after a 13-17 season a year ago.
So, when the final buzzer sounded on the Gators' 56-49 comeback victory over Auburn on Sunday, those fist pumps had to feel good. The Gators closed out their stay in the 35-year-old O'Connell Center's current configuration with a morale-boosting win.
None of the 4,019 in attendance -- the UF women's largest home crowd in nearly six years -- likely left the building believing they had just witnessed a classic.
The Gators shot just 25.5 percent from the floor (13 of 51), committed 28 turnovers and finished 2 of 18 from 3-point range. Still, they won.
The Gators had never won a game shooting such a low percentage.
"We didn't let any of those things deter our spirit,'' Butler said.
When the day started, Florida faced a dangerous dilemma.
The Gators could enter this week's SEC Tournament anywhere from the No. 3 seed to the eighth seed depending on Sunday's outcome against Auburn, which handed Florida its worse loss of the season (80-58) 14 days earlier, and other games around the league.
Florida trailed 26-24 at halftime and then fell behind by as many as five in the second half. Finally, down 42-37 midway into the fourth quarter, Cassie Peoples hit a 3-pointer to bring Florida to within two.
Moments later, junior Ronni Williams grabbed a rebound on a missed 3-pointer by Peoples and her putback and free throw tied the game 43-all. After the Gators took a 47-43 lead and Auburn came back to tie, Peoples sank a pair of free throws with 55 seconds left to put Florida up for good at 49-47.
Defense and free throws carried Florida to its 22nd regular-season win from there, a nine-game improvement over last season, which ties the best one-season turnaround during the regular season in the program's history. (The Gators also improved by nine games in the regular season in 2003-04 and 2007-08).
"It's refreshing," said January Miller, one of five players honored on Senior Day. "Last year was a tough year. We missed out on a lot of games. It's a good feeling."
The Gators earned the No. 4 seed in the SEC Tournament and don't play again until Friday, earning a double-bye thanks to Sunday's win and Georgia's loss at Tennessee.
The Gators won Sunday without senior guard Carlie Needles, a stalwart the past four seasons. She was out due to a concussion suffered in Thursday's win at LSU.
Meanwhile, they had to play a long stretch of the second quarter and third quarter without freshman guard Eleanna Christinaki, who left the game in the first half when she hit her head on the floor during a scramble for a loose ball.
Christinaki returned halfway through the third quarter as the Gators appeared stuck in mud until their late comeback. They made only 2 of 13 shots in the third period yet trailed only 38-36 at the start of the fourth.
"The biggest thing we were talking about the whole time was our defense and getting stops,'' Peoples said. "We didn't have the great offensive game."
On this day, it didn't matter that the shots weren't dropping.
It didn't matter the Gators will wake up Monday with a few extra bruises from diving for so many loose balls.
And it definitely didn't matter few gave the Gators much thought four months ago.
"Even though everyone else chose us 12th, we did not choose ourselves there,'' Needles said. "This year might be a surprise to everyone else, but we're right where we are supposed to be."
As Butler did her postgame radio interview courtside, she urged the fans to show up in Jacksonville on Friday when the Gators open play in the SEC Tournament.
"It's exciting to go into the tournament with that type of momentum and an extra day of rest,'' she said. "It's just a big, big step forward for our program today."
A day worth a few fist pumps.
