MIAMI – St. John’s used a 16-0 run over a nine-minute span in the second half on its way to a 61-47 victory over the Florida women’s basketball team in the opening round of the FIU Thanksgiving Class at the U.S. Century Bank Arena.
The Red Storm and Gators were tied at halftime 30-30, but St. John’s (4-0) took advantage of another poor shooting night by Florida (2-3) to win. St. John’s hit 48 percent (12 of 25) in the second half, while Florida hit just 28.6 percent (8 of 28), including a 1-for-11 performance from beyong the 3-point line.
“We had a stretch in the second half when we just quit scoring,” Florida coach Amanda Butler said. “We didn’t put the ball in the hole. When we had good looks, we didn’t convert them. It’s tough when we’ve got players who play a lot of minutes and aren’t giving us any offensive production. The effort was there. The fight was there, but when you’re playing a good team, you have to have results, too. We also got killed on the boards.”
Senior Sharielle Smith scored a team-high 9 points and grabbed 5 rebounds for Florida. It was the first time in Butler’s two-plus years as head coach that the Gators have failed to produce a double-digit scorer in a game. The Red Storm, which had a 45-33 edge on the boards, scored 22 points off of the Gators’ 21 turnovers.
Florida actually led 42-38 with 13:17 left in the second half after baskets by Jennifer George and Smith. But then the offense went cold and St. John’s ripped off its 16-0 run that put it in command 54-42 with under four minutes to play. Florida was 0-for-10 shooting and turned the ball over seven times during the stretch.
Smith ended the drought with a 3-pointer and George hit a basket to cut the St. John’s lead to seven, 54-47, with 2:24 left. But the Gators got no closer.
Jordan Jones and Lonnika Thompson each had 8 points for Florida, while Jennifer George had 7 points and 7 rebounds. Steffi Sorensen led Florida with 8 rebounds but failed to score.
Shenneika Smith scored 17 points for St. John’s and teammate Da’Shena Stevens added 14 points with 11 rebounds.
Florida meets FIU (2-3) in the consolation game at 4 p.m. Sunday following the championship game between St. John’s and Saint Joseph’s.