Gator Country

Sharielle Smith finished with a double-double -- 18 points and 13 rebounds -- but Florida could not finish off Florida State, losing 66-62 Tuesday at the O'Connell Center./Gator Country photo by Tim Casey

For 38 minutes Tuesday, the Florida and Florida State women’s basketball teams went at it like a couple of heavyweight champions at the O’Connell Center.

In the final two minutes, however, the No. 12 Seminoles pulled away for a 66-62 victory.

Florida (1-1) took a late lead in the game on a 3-pointer by senior forward Sharielle Smith that gave the Gators a 62-60 lead with 2:04 remaining in regulation. But Florida State (2-0) went on a 6-0 run to finish the game, aided by three of Florida’s 18 turnovers.

Guard Jordan Jones came off a screen and shot an NBA-length 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining but it rimmed out, and FSU’s Jacinta Monroe hit the first of two free throws with three seconds remaining for the final margin.

The Gators didn’t have a strong shooting game, throwing up 31 3-pointers but connecting on just nine while shooting 32.8 percent (20 of 61) from the field.

“I was so proud of our fight and effort because it’s not like we played well,” Florida coach Amanda Butler said. “It’s not like everything we put up there fell. We knew that the shooting night was not typical of our team. This was a bad shooting night for us. But we also didn’t hang our heads. We kept fighting.”

Although the shots weren’t falling for Florida, Butler said she didn’t see anything that indicated the Gators need to shot fewer 3-pointers. The Gators will get their share of 3-pointers to fall.

Butler was more focused on the effort her team demonstrated against the Seminoles. Overmatched in size and experience, the Gators were tenacious until the final buzzer.
It was that effort that Butler talked about with her players in the post-game locker room. But despite their effort, the lead they earned dissolved.

“We just got to get better at closing out ball games,” Butler said. “We had our opportunities, we had a chance to get a stop and put them in a position to foul us, and we had some costly turnovers. We have a lot to learn from this game, and that’s what we’ll do.”

Jones, who took the final Florida shot, said that it wasn’t what the Gators drew up, but that she thought it was their best chance to score as the seconds wound down. Still, when she looked up at the ball arching toward the hoop, she thought that it would go down and tie the game for the Gators.

“They played tough defense all night,” Jones said. “They were tough and physical, and so they kind of took away what we drew up. That’s part of basketball. They take something away, and we should have countered it. Next time, when that situation comes up, hopefully it ends a little differently.”

Smith finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds for Florida, while Jordan added 13 points with 5 assists. Chasity Clayton scored 13 points and Christian Hunnicutt added 10, both coming off the bench. Monroe had 11 of Florida State’s 44 rebounds.

The Gators opened up a brief seven-point leads at the beginning of each half, but the Seminoles responded with a strong run each time. The biggest difference in the game, other than the shooting, was in bench play. Florida tallied just seven points from its bench players, compared to 33 for the Seminoles.

“Their bench played tremendous,” Butler said. “We didn’t come in as confident as we should have. You look at things at the end of a ball game and say, ‘What happened? What didn’t happen?’ But what you hope is that you see a lot of things that you can correct, that are in your control, and that’s where we feel that we’re sitting. That’s correctable.”

FLORIDA STATE 66, FLORIDA 62
At O’Connell Center, Gainesville

FLORIDA STATE (66) – Jacinta Monroe 3-9 2-4 9, Cierra Bravard 3-7 3-4 9, Angel Gray 3-5 2-4 8, Alysha Harvin 1-8 0-0 2, Courtney Ward 2-6 1-1 5, Chasity Clayton 5-8 2-3 13, Alexa Deluzio 3-10 1-3 8, Christian Hunnicutt 4-5 2-3 10, Chelsea Davis 1-1 0-0 2. TOTALS 25-59 11-20 66.

FLORIDA (62) – Sharielle Smith 4-11 6-9 18, Azania Stewart 3-4 2-4 8, Steffi Sorensen 3-14 0-0 8, Trumae Lucas 3-13 2-2 8, Jordan Jones 4-14 3-3 13, Lonnika Thompson 2-2 0-0 5, Ndidi Madu 0-2 0-0 0, Susan Yenser 0-0 0-0 0, Lily Svete 0-0 0-0 0, Jennifer George 1-1 0-0 2. TOTALS 20-61 13-18 62.

Halftime: Florida 35, Florida State 32. 3-point goals: Florida State 5-13 (Monroe 1-1, Gray 2-4, Harvin 0-2, Ward 0-2, Clayton 1-1, Deluzio 1-3); Florida 9-31 (Smith 4-6, Sorensen 2-10, Lucas 0-3, Jones 2-11, Thompson 1-1). Shooting: Florida State 25 of 59 for 42.4 percent; Florida 20 of 61 for 32.8 percent. Rebounds: Florida State 44 (Monroe 11, Harvin 6, Ward 6); Florida 41 (Smith 13, Lucas 7, Sorensen 6). Turnovers: Florida State 19, Florida 18. Assists: Florida State 16 (Ward 6), Florida 14 (Jones 5, Lucas 4). Blocked shots: Florida State 2 (Monroe, Ward), Florida 0. Steals: Florida State 7 (Deluzio 2, Ward 2), Florida 7 (Jones 3, Sorensen 2). Total fouls (fouled out): Florida State 18 (none); Florida 17 (none). Technical fouls: Florida State 0, Florida 0. Records: Florida State 2-0, Florida 1-1. Officials: Joe Cunningham, Lawson Newton, Ed Sidlasky. A—1,873.

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