Despite featuring three players in double
figures, the University of Florida women’s basketball team fell, 76-66 Sunday
afternoon to Ole Miss at the Pavilion.
Funda Nakkasoglu, scoring 10 or more points for the 13th time this season,
paced Florida with 21 points while Danielle Rainey and Zada Williams recorded 15
and 10 points, respectively.
The Gators rallied back from double-digit deficits twice in
the game, and trailed by just two in the fourth, but saw the host Rebels pull
away late.
Florida held the edge in rebounding, 32-27 and outscored the
Rebels’ bench 30-9.
The Gators put together a strong second quarter, outscoring
Ole Miss 16-12 and faced just a 34-33 deficit at the break. In the third, Ole
Miss jumped ahead by outscoring the Gators 22-14. Florida opened the fourth
quarter locked in and determined, scoring nine of the first 11 points in the
frame, but couldn’t sustain it, as Ole Miss finished the game with an 18-10 run.
Florida knocked down eight 3-pointers and held the edge in
second chance points, 12-8, but was unable to overcome the hot shooting Rebels
who posted a 50.9 shooting percentage on the day.
Ole Miss connected on eight 3-pointers of its
own, after entering the game averaging just five per contest, and finished
shooting 11 percentage points above its season average.
Nine different Florida players scored in the
game and three players had three or more assists.
Delicia Washington led the way with nine rebounds for the Gators
while Rainey registered seven boards off the bench. Rainey continues to
progress as the sophomore finished in double figures for the second time in as
many games.
The Gators trailed by as many as 10 in the
opening quarter but hit four of their last five field goal attempts to narrow
the gap to just 22-17 after the first was in the books. Florida stayed the
course in the early going after the Rebels knocked down four of their first six
3-point attempts.
At the intermission Nakkasoglu led a group
of eight Gator scorers with seven points. The Gators drained seven of their 11
shot attempts in the stanza, shooting an efficient 63.6 percent from the floor.
Ole Miss featured a trio of double-figure
scorers paced by Shandricka Sessom’s 19 points. Crystal Allen, who entered the
game second in the SEC in scoring at 18.5 points per game, was held scoreless
in the first half but finished with 14 points and seven assists.
Nakkasoglu, Rainey and Williams combined to
shoot 14 of 26 from the floor.
UP NEXT: Florida (5-13, 1-4) returns home
Thursday, Jan. 27 to host the No. 7 Mississippi State Bulldogs (17-1, 5-0) for
the first of consecutive matchups at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell
Center.
Quotables
Head Coach Cam
Newbauer
On the defense of sophomore guard Kiki Smith…
“She did a good job of really trying to
limit Allen (Crystal Allen, Ole Miss guard). She did a great job of busting her
tail to stay with her. I wish we could have gotten that kind of effort from
everybody coming out of the gate, but like I said that comes with growth and
experience. Kiki has done a great job of being locked in and I couldn’t be
prouder of the effort she is playing with out there.”
On the SEC and its depth
“The league has a lot of parity. The top is
the top with South Carolina and Mississippi State, but if you look at what has
been happening and the scores, anybody can win any given day at any given
time.”
Overall thoughts on the game and the Rebels’
fast start…
“They (Ole Miss) started out the game and
came out of the gate really strong. They were ready to go and hit some big
shots. They always play hard and they did that tonight. They did a great job of
protecting their home court.
They are aggressive, we knew they were going to
come out and play that way. We talked about it and prepared for it but just
weren’t ready for it once it became game time for some reason. That’s all part
of it. When you look at our roster, it may look like we are experienced but in
terms of SEC game experience, we aren’t that experienced. When you’re on the road,
it doesn’t matter who it is, you have to come ready to play and I think out of
the gates we got a little shell shocked.”
Notables
- UF’s bench is outscoring opponent’s reserves, 355-228 on the season and the Gators have held the edge in terms of bench production in 12 games.
- Florida outrebounded its opponent for the second-straight game.
- Florida shot 63.6 percent in the second quarter, its second best shooting percentage in any quarter this season trailing just the 78.6 percent it shot in the third quarter vs. Northwestern.
- Danielle Rainey scored 15 or more points for the second-straight game.
- Florida featured three or more double figure scorers for the second-straight game marking just the second time it has done so all season.
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