Amanda Butler has a cure for what happened to her Florida women’s basketball team Tuesday night. It’s called practice and plenty of it, something she hopes will put an end to things like that 72-71 loss to FAMU.
“We’re going to practice,” Butler said after the Gators fell to 3-4 on the season. “Thank goodness. I don’t think we’re fatigued, but we clearly have to get a lot better. It’s hard to improve just in games, and so we need practice time, and we will get the most out of our 20 hours a week. We’re gonna make sure we’re better next time we put on our uniforms because tonight we didn’t deserve to be wearing Florida uniforms.”
The next time the Gators play is Monday, when they travel to New Jersey to face Big East power Rutgers, a huge step up in competition from FAMU although FAMU certainly gave the Gators more than they could handle.
The problem for the Gators was roller-coaster intensity. Intensity was at a very high level when the Gators bolted out to a 12-0 lead to start the game and it was high once again when the Gators came ever so close to erasing a 12-point FAMU deficit in the final 48.2 seconds of the game. A three-pointer from Jordan Jones with 1.5 seconds remaining got the Gators back to within one, but FAMU threw a length of the court pass to Tameika McKelton to end Florida’s hopes of a fantastic finish.
In between the strong start and near miracle finish, the Gators neither hit their shots (36.9 percent from the game) nor did they hustle at a level satisfactory for Butler.
“We’ve talked a lot about how we have to play to win games, and that must not be sinking in very well,” Butler said. “I think that our lack of intensity through stretches of the game … we came out of the game with a lot of intensity and went up 12, but then we relaxed, but we can’t relax in any situation right now. Their intensity exceeded ours.”
The Gators got strong efforts out of center Azania Stewart, who scored a career-high 17 points on 7-9 shooting and Steffi Sorenson, who had seven assists to go with a career-best 12 rebounds, but their contributions just weren’t enough.
“I don’t think effort is a good way to describe — we shouldn’t even use that word in reference to how we played,” Butler said. “Individual efforts — I thought Steffi (Sorensen) with 12 rebounds was fantastic, and Stewart’s effort was fantastic. But if we’re gonna talk about effort, then we need to talk about FAMU.”
Playing with great was little consolation for Sorenson, who would have gladly traded a win for the good stats.
“I mean, we lost, so there isn’t much of a reward,” Sorensen said. “Shooting will come together, but I’m always going to come out and try to help the team. I always kind of rely on effort if my shots aren’t falling. If my shots don’t fall, that’s not gonna dictate how I play in the game.”
Stewart was joined in double figures by Jordan Jones, who finished with 13 points, and Shariell Smith, who had 10.