ATHENS, Ga. – For the first five minutes of the second half Sunday, Florida played inspiring defense that forced three timeouts by Georgia. But the Gators couldn’t maintain their pressure and the Lady Bulldogs regrouped and used some keen outside shooting plus a 14-0 second-half run to earn an 84-75 Southeastern Conference victory in the regular-season finale for both women’s basketball teams at snowbound Stegeman Coliseum.
Senior Marshae Dotson of Columbus, Ohio, scored a game-high 22 points for the Gators (23-6, 9-5 SEC) while junior Steffi Sorensen of Jacksonville tied her career high of 15 points and senior Sha Brooks of Jackson, Tenn., scored 13 points and had seven assists.
But Georgia (17-12, 7-7 SEC) outscored Florida on the bench 39-14 and in the paint, 42-30. Porsha Phillips led five Georgia players in double figures with 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds. The Lady Bulldogs also shot 52.4 percent from the floor.
“It was real simple what happened tonight,” Florida coach Amanda Butler said. “We played five minutes of great defense and that was it. The other 35 minutes, Georgia controlled with its offense. If you’re going to steal a win on someone else’s court, you’re going to do it with tough defense and rebounding. We did rebound the ball on the offensive end, but we let them score at-will. Aside from the first five minutes of the second half, we didn’t take anything away from them.”
Florida exploded out of the locker room following halftime to score the first nine points while forcing five turnovers to take a 47-45 lead, the Gators’ largest of the game. Georgia called three timeouts during those first three-plus minutes.
Ashley Houts stopped the run with a pull-up 10-footer in the paint to even the score, but Brooks nailed a deep jumper and Sorensen came up with a energetic play, as she saved a ball on the defensive end and flung it down court to a streaking Trumae Lucas, who converted the layup that gave the Gators a 51-47 lead with 15:40 remaining.
The teams traded buckets before Houts converted a three-point play and dropped UF’s lead to one, 53-52. Florida came right back with a power move inside from Dotson and a short transition bucket from Brooks that gave the Gators a 57-52 lead with 12:14 on the clock.
Following another exchange in scores, Georgia ripped off its 14-0 run and reclaimed the lead, 68-59, with 5:46 remaining.
Sorensen finally ended the run with a 3-pointer from the left side at the 5:26 mark and dropped the deficit to six. Georgia then hit one free throw, before Sorensen nailed her fourth trey of the game and brought the Gators within four points, 69-65, with 4:23 remaining.
The teams then traded scores, with Georgia’s a dagger 3-pointer from Angela Puleo, who sparked a 10-2 march, and the Gators never recovered.
Georgia hit 33 of 63 shots (52.4 percent), only the third time a team has shot better than 50 percent against the Gators. Florida shot 38.5 percent, just the fourth time it has been under 40 percent.
The Gators secured the No. 4 seed in the 12-team Southeastern Conference Tournament, which begins with first-round action on Thursday at Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Ark. As one of the top-four seeds, Florida earned a first-round bye and will play the winner of the game between Tennessee (No. 5) and Alabama (No. 12) on Friday at 7:30 p.m.