The first round of the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament (WBIT) placed the No. 3 seed Florida Gators in a matchup with the St. John’s Red Storm on Thursday night at the O’Dome.
While it was only the third meeting in program history between Florida and St. John’s, Gators fifth-year senior guard Leilani Correa knew all about the Red Storm.
Correa is originally from Manchester, N.J., and transferred to Florida in 2022 after playing three seasons at St. John’s. Her best statistical season came during the 2020-2021 season at St. John’s when she averaged 17.6 points in 22 games.
As she has done most of the season at Florida, Correa came off the bench Thursday with 7:40 left in the first quarter and tried to provide an offensive boost for the Gators. The Gators kept the game close in the first quarter, with St. John’s holding onto a five-point lead.
However, Florida struggled offensively as the game progressed, scoring just 11 points in the second quarter.
At the end of the first half, the Gators trailed 44-29. Still, St. John’s coach Joe Tartamella, familiar with Correa and with a recent scouting report on the Gators, knew the Red Storm could not let up defensively.
Tartamella is in his 12th season at St. John’s and coached Correa for three.
“Our goal was to force Florida to guard more than one play or one action,” said Tartamella. “The way we played tonight, the way we moved the ball, that is the capability that we have.”
The Gators looked to put the 15-point deficit behind them at the start of the second half. To try to spark the comeback, Coach Kelly Rae Finley inserted Correa into the starting lineup.
“As a coach, it’s your job to adapt and adjust,” Finley said. “We felt like, as a coaching staff, we needed another option for offensive scoring and wanted to see if we could get her going just a little bit.”
However, Florida continued to have offensive woes, only scoring nine points in the third and finished the quarter down, 61-38. Although Correa’s output wasn’t up to her traditional standards, her teammates were there to help the team recover.
Freshman Laila Reynolds was in the country’s top 20 recruiting class and played one of her better games. Despite Reynolds’ efforts, the Gators could not recover from their early hole and lost 79-60. Reynolds scored 17 points on 8-for-15 shooting. She played 29 minutes in the defeat.
Finley is optimistic about the future of Reynolds and her team.
“She competed, and she is going to compete every single night; that’s just how she’s built,” Finley said. “And for those of you that are going to come back and watch us for next season, I think you’re going to have someone really, really special to keep your eyes on.”
But St. John’s Unique Drake stole the show on Thursday, scoring a season-high 37 points. Drake’s performance marked the second time this season she has scored 35 points in a single game.
“The basket was kind of big tonight, and my shots were going in,” said Drake. “I just tried to do what my team needed me to do.”
With the game winding down, Correa checked back in with 1:46 left, absorbing her final moments playing with the Florida Gators.
“Leilani is just a fierce competitor,” Finley said. “She’s tough, she’s coachable, she’s a great teammate, and she helped lay the foundation for our program to find future success.”
As the Gators’ season came to a close, Finley had a final message for her players heading into the offseason and toward her fourth season in charge of the program.
“I told them thank you. Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, we as a program are better because of them,” Finley said. “They’ve elevated us in a time where they could have easily turned their backs and chose not to. They’re going to go on to be very, very successful.”