Florida squandered a 10-point lead by committing five costly turnovers in the final five minutes of the Gators’ 59-58 loss to No. 19 Kentucky on Thursday at the O’Connell Center.
“The last two games where we’ve had a double-digit lead, we’ve just got to finish out the ballgame,” Florida head coach Amanda Butler said. “We’ve got to finish out the ballgame with confidence, with awareness, with great point guard play and with a lot more poise than what we’re demonstrating.”
The loss is the second consecutive game in which the Gators (12-8, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) have seen a second half lead result in a loss. Florida lost 70-64 to Georgia on Sunday in Athens after leading by 16 points with 14:17 remaining in the game.
“We’re just not finishing out games with the level of composure that we should,” Butler said. “I don’t accept the excuse that we’re young or inexperienced or any of that, we’re not anymore. We’re better than what we showed that last eight minutes.”
Florida committed 24 turnovers, including 10 steals by Kentucky defenders.
“Although I thought we still showed a tremendous amount of fight, we’ve just got to value the ball more, we’ve got to be more confident as ballhandlers, better decision makers,” Butler said. “You’re not going to beat a good team with 24 turnovers.”
UF took a one-point lead when junior guard Deanna Allen hit a 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining.
At the time, it appeared to give Allen a feeling of redemption.
Allen shot 5-of-8 in the loss and scored a team-high 13 points, bouncing back after shooting 5-of-11 against Georgia and 3-of-19 during the Gators’ 83-40 loss to Tennessee on Jan. 13.
“It takes away the good feelings because we didn’t complete the whole game, we didn’t finish out with the win,” Allen said. “I feel like I put this game on my shoulders because I always want the ball in my hands and when I am on the floor I think I give my team the best chance to win.”
After the game, Allen was focused on her 2-of-4 free throw shooting.
“If I were to knock down those free throws that I missed we would have won the game, so I take the blame for missing those free throws in the crucial part of the game,” Allen said.”
Kentucky senior forward Victoria Dunlap gave the Wildcats (14-4, 3-2) a one-point lead with 10.4 seconds remaining in the game after getting fouled by Florida junior center Azania Stewart and connecting on both free throws.
“I think it is a lack of discipline on my part,” Stewart said. “In Georgia, the big players make big-time plays and we knew that. It is going to be like that in every SEC game. At the end it was just a small tap foul, but I shouldn’t have put her in that position because she’s a big-time player and she’s averaging double-doubles and playing great for them. I knew she was going to hit those [free throws] so I just think it was just a lack of discipline.”
Dunlap scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds, an output the UF coaches foresaw.
“I don’t think we were surprised at all that they went to her,” Butler said. “That was one of the things we talked a whole lot about in game planning is that this is going to be a possession ballgame and one of their two playmakers is going to make the play if they have the chance to win it at the end of the game. She did exactly what we expected her to do.
“Again, you’ve got to handle your business before it gets down to that last possession. There’s a judgment call of whether there’s a foul or not a foul. You can’t put yourself in that position. That’s what we did.”
Florida senior forward Ndidi Madu’s jump shot at the final buzzer bounced off the rim, leaving the crowd of 1,863 disappointed.
“It’s just disappointing because I think we got caught up in the moment,” Butler said. “I know we know how to handle those game situations because we’ve been drilling it quite a bit, not just for this ballgame but the previous ballgame as well. We’ve got to grow from it and know that we’re better than the decisions made in those situations tonight.
“We know we’re good enough to win this ballgame. Kentucky is very good. By everyone else’s estimations, we weren’t supposed to even be in a one-point, last-possession situation with them. We know we’re good enough to be up 16 on Georgia, we know we’re good enough to be up by 10 late in the game on Kentucky.
“Just like we have every week on this season, whether it was November, December or January, we have to look at the end of the week at how we can get better and move forward. That’s all we’re interested in doing is moving forward.”
The Gators have ten SEC games remaining in the regular season.
“Is this going to be an anchor around our neck or is this disappointment going to dictate the rest of our season? Heck no,” Butler said. “We have a lot of ballgames to play. We’re too good to let a couple of unfortunate outcomes, that we felt like were within our control, dictate the rest of a very long season. We’ve got a lot of belief in what we’ve got left to do.”
Freshman guard Jaterra Bonds and junior guard Jordan Jones each added nine points. Freshman forward Deaundra Young chipped in seven points and a game-high nine rebounds. Madu brought down eight rebounds, while Stewart blocked four shots.
Florida shot 38.0 percent (19-of-50) from the floor in the game, but connected on just 15-of-22 free throws (68.2 pct.), leaving seven points at the stripe. Kentucky shot 37.5 percent (21-of-56) from the field and made 12-of-17 free throws (70.6 pct.). The Gators outrebounded Kentucky 45-27, but the Wildcats held the edge in points in the paint at 26-16. Kentucky also scored 25 points off of 24 Florida turnovers.
Florida had difficulty breaking a press defense by Kentucky throughout the game.
“I don’t think we were stumped by their press,” Butler said. “I just felt like we continued to try to go down the same roads every time and expect something different to happen. Right at half-court, in particular, I thought we made really poor decisions with the ball, generally in our perimeter players’ hands.”
Kentucky freshman guard Jennifer O’Neill, who scored a career-high 15 points off of the bench for coach Matthew Mitchell, led the Wildcats.
“It was unbelievable tonight for her to come off the bench and score buckets,” Mitchell said. “It was an incredible game. Florida played so hard and they were so well prepared. I just have a lot of respect for Coach [Amanda] Butler and her team. It was unfortunate that either team had to lose this game, but we’re thrilled to win. We certainly respect Florida and understand that they had their way with us most of the game.”
Mitchell said that aggressive defenses by both teams were a big role in the game.
“They really gave us a lot of trouble with their full-court press and we had a difficult time with that,” Mitchell said. “We didn’t do a good job with executing out of it and I think that really bothered us. I thought that, finally, with our full-court press, we were able to score a few buckets and get into our press. That sort of changed the tone of the game.”
Florida struggled early in the game after committing four turnovers in the first two minutes, allowing Kentucky to take an early 6-0 lead.
“I thought that, unfortunately, the way we started the game really set the tone for [multiple turnovers],” Butler said. “I don’t think we got a shot up in the first two-and-a-half to three minutes. We were turning it over before we could get the ball to the rim and that was against seemingly no pressure. That was just a lack of mental focus. We were very excited about playing and having another chance to compete, so maybe it was a little bit of that, but we have just got to better than that. Our turnovers gave them opportunities offensively to win the ballgame.”
Stewart was responsible for two of the early turnovers and admitted that over-excitement played a role in the first-half struggles.
“I think we just came out too excited, especially me,” Stewart said. “I needed to just relax. I’m glad coach Butler pulled me out and let me breathe and let me relax. We traded baskets with them and we pulled away with those 10 points, but back-to-back losses like this is terrible and it’s just really disappointing.”
Florida returns to action on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET when it travels to Baton Rouge, La., to take on LSU.