Gator Country

Florida senior guard Steffi Sorensen gets fouled while making a layup during the Gators' 61-54 win against South Florida in the opening round of the Women's NIT on Thursday at the O'Connell Center. / Gator Country photo by Tim Casey

Sometimes, the first 10 minutes sets the tone for an entire women's basketball game. Just ask the Florida Gators.

The Gators, who have struggled scoring at times this season, opened a 20-6 lead at the 10:13 mark of the first half before going on to win 61-54 against defending WNIT champion South Florida in the opening round of the this year’s tournament at the O’Connell Center Thursday night.

Halfway through the first minute, Jordan Jones nailed a 3 from the top of the key. Sharielle Smith sank the next 3-pointer with 16:23 left, followed by Steffi Sorensen at 13:32. Jones hit two in the next two minutes and Sorensen added one more to led the Gators into that commanding 20-6 lead with 10:14 left in the game.

“I thought it was huge because we didn’t have that sort of surge in the second half,” Florida coach Amanda Butler said after the game. “I thought the tone that we set at the beginning—I don’t think there was ever a thought that we weren’t gonna win because of how we started. We felt good from the beginning, and even when things didn’t go as well as we wanted them to, we still felt so good because of the way we started. I thought that really sustained us.”

Sorensen’s early 3-pointers helped her lead Florida in scoring with 16.

“We love playing at home,” Sorensen said. “I’ve been putting in some extra work shooting here at the O’Dome. I didn’t shoot all that well tonight, but Jordan [Jones] did and that really propelled us in the first half. She came out hot and all of us followed behind her.  She got us off to a good start to dominate the first few minutes, so we were in control the whole rest of the game.”

The Bulls chipped away at the early Florida lead for the rest of the first half, mostly behind the strength of their center, Jessica Lawson, who scored 11 in the first half and finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds in the game.

After the game, Butler called Lawson an SEC-caliber center.

“She’s a great player,” Butler said. “She’s an SEC post player. There’s not any question about that. She’s a senior, and she wasn’t ready for her career to end, and it showed in the way that she played. She’s a tough matchup. She’s strong, she’s smart and she’s agile—she’s deceptively agile—she does a great job on the boards. She’s one of those players that, you’re not gonna be able to guard in one way or with one person.”

Florida was able to balance Lawson’s paint presence because center Azania Stewart, who has been bothered by a left ankle injury, made the start today and scored 15 points.

“Azania gives us such tremendous a tremendous presence in the paint on both ends,” Butler said. “As much as [Jessica] Lawson was effective offensively, she struggled with guarding Azania. There is no doubt we look and feel different because of her presence on the floor. That energy that Z gives us and how she talks and communicates, breathesa lot of confidence into our team.

The Bulls took a 14-0 run that stretched between the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half, eventually tying the game with 18:36 left in the second half on a 3-pointer from Keneisha Saunders.

That was the closest the Bulls got to pulling out the win.

After that, the Gators clamped down on defense. USF shot just 12-49 (24.5 percent) from the floor in the second half.

“I thought our kids executed the game plan—the defensive game plan in particular—very, very well,” Butler said.

Florida will play at Miami on Sunday in the second round of the WNIT. If Florida wins , it could play another game at the O’Connell Center next week.

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