The women’s basketball teams of Florida and Georgia tip off their final regular-season game today, a game that should have huge postseason implications for both teams. Tipoff at the Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga., is 2:30 p.m.
Only four of the 12 seeds for the upcoming SEC Tournament at Arkansas have been solidified: No. 5 Tennessee, No. 10 Kentucky, No. 11 South Carolina and No. 12 Alabama.
LSU’s victory over Tennessee Thursday secured a first-round bye for Florida, marking the seventh time in the 30-year history of the event the Gators will not have to play on the first day. The Gators
NEXT UP: FLORIDA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
What: Florida (23-5, 9-4 SEC) at Georgia (16-12, 6-7 SEC)
When: Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Where: The Stegeman Coliseum, Athens, Ga.
Radio: WRUF-AM (850) with Steve Babik and Steve Russell.
(23-5, 9-4 SEC) will be either the No. 3 or the No. 4 seed. The only way the team can earn the third seed is to defeat Georgia and have Mississippi upset LSU in Oxford.
Georgia, meanwhile, will be seeded anywhere from No. 6 to No. 9 for the SEC tourney and the Bulldogs are also fighting for their NCAA lives. A win Sunday would get Georgia to the .500 mark this season in the SEC.
Georgia (16-12, 6-7 SEC) is 10-3 overall at home this season, including a 4-2 record in SEC action, with two of those victories coming against the top two teams in the league (Auburn and Vanderbilt).
“We have been getting ready to play a Georgia team that’s very dangerous and can beat any team in the country on a given day,” Florida head coach Amanda Butler said.
The game will be the second of the season between the Gators and Bulldogs. Florida used a 14-2 run in the second half to pull away from the Lady Bulldogs in a 61-45 victory. Georgia shot just 32 percent from the floor as senior Marshae Dotson scored a game-high 20 points.
“It was one of our best defensive performances all year,” Butler said. “We were very focused on getting stops and then focused on getting rebounds, which has been a hard thing for us.”
All-America candidate Sha Brooks leads Florida’s scoring, averaging 16.6 points overall and 20.2 points in SEC games. Dotson, a 5-11 forward, is the team’s second-leading scorer (13.2 points) and leading rebounder.
Georgia will counter with its energetic point guard Ashley Houts, its 6-foot-5 post player Angel Robinson and 6-foot-2 forward Porsha Phillips.