STORRS, Conn. – Playing for the first time in 16 days following their fifth loss in six games to end the regular season, coach Amanda Butler’s Florida Gators women’s basketball team looked like its midseason self in a 70-57 victory over Temple Sunday in a first-round NCAA Women’s Tournament game at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion on the University of Connecticut campus.
The victory by the Gators, their 24th in 31 games, matched a school record for victories in a season.
If Florida hopes to break it Tuesday night, though, the Gators will have to be firing on all cylinders. Their Tuesday opponent at 7 p.m.? Undefeated and top-ranked Connecticut (34-0), which drilled Vermont 104-65 in the first game of the day Sunday.
“We have to play better than we did today,” said senior guard Sha Brooks, who once again led the eighth-seeded Gators in scoring with 18 points and five assists. “Today, you didn’t see our best ballgame. You saw spurts, but we’re going to have to put two halfs together in order to be prepared for Tuesday.”
Junior wing Steffi Sorensen and senior center Marshae Dotson both scored 13 points, but it was the 13 rebounds and the hustling play of Sorensen that got the attention of Butler.
“She puts in that type of performance every game,” Butler said of Sorensen. “She gets her hands on so many balls, but tonight it just seemed like she was able to secure more. I think she is really the X-factor for our team because that’s what we were missing. That’s what we talked about at halftime. We were in those rebounding battles, but Temple was coming up with the possession every single time. That’s what we talked about at halftime. Somebody had to make a difference, somebody had to change tht trend and Steffi obviously took that to heart.”
With Sorensen stepping up her game in the second half, Florida eventually won the battle of the boards, 32-24. Plus, it was her 3-pointer that ignited a 9-0 run by the Gators early in the second half that left them leading 52-39.
“I didn’t think I had a double-double,” Sorensen said. “I almost had a triple-double with (my) turnovers. I was kind of disappointed with that, but certainly I’m always about hustling and going after rebounds. It just kind of happened that the balls were bouncing to me. I just think we came out and shot the ball well. We stayed composed”
Temple (21-10) tried to get back into it with a press but the Owls could not, mainly because of poor shooting from the outside. Temple went 0-for-12 from 3-point land, while Florida, led by Sorensen’s 3-of-6 effort, went 6-for-13.
Shenita Landry had 13 points for Temple, while teammates Shanea Cotton and Kristen McCarthy each had 12 for first-year coach Tonya Cardoza, who spent the previous 14 seasons as an assistant to UConn head coach Geno Auriemma. The Huskies sat near the Temple bench during the second game and tried to lend support to their former assistant coach’s team.
The Owls had come into the game on a hot streak, winning 10 of their last 12, but it was the Gators, who struggled at the end of the season after knocking off Tennessee in early February, dominated down low as Dotson and Aneika Henry scored 13 of Florida’s first 15 points. Henry finished with 6 points.
Brooks, however, was held scoreless for the first 12 minutes and Florida could not pull away, leading just 20-19. But once Brooks started scoring, the Owls had no answers for the Gators.
Brooks scored seven points in Florida’s 14-2 run that stretched the lead to 34-21. Temple managed to cut the lead to eight at halftime, 41-33, thanks to its press.
The two teams combined for 40 turnovers, with Florida making 21. However, the Gators were successful because they outshot the Owls 46-39 percent, including 46-0 percent in 3-pointers. Florida also hit 12 of 13 free throws, while Temple made just 11 of 16.
Temple started the second half with a 6-2 run to cut Florida’s lead to four, 43-39, but Sorensen hit a 3-pointer off of one of Brooks’ five assists to put the Gators up 46-39 with 18:09 left. That basket ignited the game-changing 9-0 run. When it ended with Brooks scoring on a layup with an assist to Dotson, Florida was in control 52-39 with 15:56 left in the second half.
Florida took its biggest lead of the game, 68-53, on Dotson’s layup with 3:40 to play.
Now, the Gators get to play the best. The meeting Tuesday between Florida and UConn will be only the second. Butler was a sophomore guard for the Gators in the previous meeting in 1991, won by the Huskies 71-48.
“We’re happy to be in this situation,” Dotson said. “It’s just like any other game and we just have to come out there and play like we did today.”
Because at this stage of the season, there is no tomorrow.