On a day that was meant to be a tribute for all the seniors on the Florida Gators women’s basketball team, it was just another day of work for senior guard Sha Brooks, whose shooting hand dealt an end to the Gators’ three-game losing streak.
As the Gators seemed bent once more on shooting themselves in the foot with turnovers and mistakes, Brooks responded with 24 points, a final encore on the O’Connell Center stage she has starred on for the last four seasons. She didn’t come off the floor at any point in the game and her 40-minute effort helped the No. 15 Gators (23-5 overall, 9-4 SEC) to an 82-66 victory over South Carolina Sunday.
It looked as if the Gators would cruise to an easy win on Senior Day after they jumped out to an early 9-0 lead. For once, the Gators had a significant size advantage over the Gamecocks (10-15, 2-10 SEC), whose tallest starter was 5-11. But the Gators were unable to keep their foot on the pedal, and the Gamecocks capitalized by beating their zone and outrebounding them, shrinking the Florida lead to 30-26 at half.
“We’ve been playing a little more zone than we normally do,” Florida coach Amanda Butler said, “and one of the challenges you have in a zone is rebounding.”
South Carolina had 13 offensive rebounds at the half and had outscored the Gators 20-10 in the paint. It seemed like a rerun from Thursday’s dismal loss to Arkansas, in which the Gators were just outhustled and lacked the toughness to fight for rebounds.
“We shot the ball 53 times and they shot it 70 times,” Butler said. “We hit more of our shots and we shot a higher percentage, but they had 70 attempts because we gave them too many second chances.
“A rebound is a little mini-fight. Every single time that ball comes off the rim it’s a fight. Someone is going to establish themselves first and someone is going to get position first. We talked again about our fight and our fire and made sure our guards were going in there and getting it.”
Sure enough, Brooks came out in the second half and provided that toughness to the Gators, leading a 52-point barrage. Brooks led the fight, diving for loose balls on the floor and playing physical defense on the talented Gamecock guards. The Gators displayed an attitude they haven’t had since beating Tennessee two weeks ago.
“South Carolina is one of the scrappiest, hardest fighting, most competitive teams in our league,” Butler said. “We wouldn’t have won if we hadn’t been tough. There were moments that if we had to have it, we had it. I absolutely think it was our toughness that pushed us over the edge and our toughness that allowed us to separate ourselves from them as well.”
The stat line for Brooks was 40 minutes, 24 points, six rebounds and eight assists, but the play of the game came with 1:20 left in the game.
After stealing the ball at the other end of the court, junior guard Lonnika Thompson bolted down the floor and found Brooks in the left corner. Brooks put up a 3-point shot. But as she was shooting, South Carolina’s Courtney Newton lowered her shoulder into Brooks and sent her flying back into the Florida bench. Brooks sank the 3-pointer and completed the 4-point play by making the free throw.
“The teams are playing me really aggressive, they’re trying to knock me down and hope I don’t get back up,” Brooks said recalling the acrobatic shot. “I know when I was getting up I saw Marshae and she was standing there smiling at me so I know what that meant, that it went in.”
That was the dagger the sunk the scrappy, persistent Gamecocks but perhaps it’ll be the greatest bow any senior has ever taken at Florida. The Gators still have one more regular-season game at Georgia next Sunday and then it’s on to the postseason, so maybe there is still enough time left for several more encores.
GATOR BAITS: Sha Brooks is averaging 21 points over the last six SEC games. … Senior Marshae Dotson also contributed 18 points and five rebounds in 22 minutes. … Freshman guard Trumae Lucas made her first career start on Sunday. That’s the first time a freshman has cracked the starting lineup since Jennifer Mossor in 2007. … After a sloppy and rather soft first half, the Gators finished the game with 38 rebounds to South Carolina’s 34.