Angie Bjorklund was never supposed to be the scoring option as the fourth-ranked Tennessee Lady Vols lined up to run a play they call “Gator” with 31.5 seconds left at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Thursday night. The play was designed to get the ball into 6-6 Kelly Cain or athletic Glory Johnson in the post, but with time running out and Florida’s defense smothering, Bjorklund had to take matters in her own hands.
Somehow Bjorklund tightroped the baseline where she got a small crease when Cain got a piece of Florida’s Steffi Sorenson. That was all the room Bjorklund needed for a reverse layup with 2.3 seconds remaining that allowed the Lady Vols (15-1, 3-0 SEC) to sneak past Florida (9-8, 2-2 SEC), 66-64.
The Lady Vols still had to sweat the final 2.3 seconds when Florida ran a near-perfect inbounds play against Tennessee’s press. It began with Sharielle Smith running the baseline and throwing a baseball pass to Sorenson just a couple of steps on the Florida side of midcourt. Sorenson was pivoting to her right before she ever touched a foot on the ground. She delivered a pass in the corner to a wide open Lonnika Thompson who launched what looked like a game-winning three-pointer.
The shot looked so good going up, but when it clanged off the iron the Lady Vols celebrated while the Gators could only think about how close they came.
“We lost a ball game that we should have won,” Florida coach Amanda Butler said. “We know that we should have won. So are we as upset as we’ve been with other (losses)? Absolutely. Playing Tennessee close was not our objective tonight — it was to win. We couldn’t finish it out.”
Like Thompson’s shot from the corner that looked good when it left her hand, Florida looked good with 7:33 left in the game when the Gators were holding a 56-48 advantage. But, just like Thompson’s shot that sailed off target the closer it got to the rim, the Gators’ chances for an upset faded down the stretch.
Florida’s bid to knock the Lady Vols off suffered a tough blow with 5:27 left when 6-4 Azania Stewart picked up her fourth foul. With Stewart and 6-2 Jennifer George working in tandem, the Gators were holding their own on the inside but once Stewart went to the bench the Lady Vols went on an 11-2 run to take the lead at the 1:30 mark at 64-62 when Cain powered past two Gators for the go-ahead layup. Stewart returned to the lineup after Cain scored, but the damage had already been done.
“That was a big difference,” Summitt said. “But you’ve got to decide: Am I gonna hold out, or am I gonna gamble? I’ve been in that situation before, and as a coach, it’s kind of a jump ball. Her [Stewart] being out worked to our advantage.”
The Gators were able to tie the game back up with 31 seconds left when Thompson pulled up in transition to knock down a 17-foot jumper to knot the game at 64-64.
That put the ball in Tennessee’s hands and while the Gators had the right defense to cut off the inside game, they had no defense for Bjorklund’s driving layup.
“She has the ability to create her own shot,” said Tennessee coach Pat Summit. “That was the most creative shot of the game for her.”
Florida still had a chance to win thanks to extraordinary execution on that last play.
“It’s one of the things that we practice,” coach Butler said about Florida’s final play. “We’ve got a few different looks at the end of the ball game, ways we can score. And we practice those every day or every week for that moment. I was really, really pleased with how well we executed it. I think everybody in the gym thought we were gonna be on ESPN tonight by hitting that buzzer-beater and pulling the upset tonight.”
For the Gators to even have a chance to win at the end meant fighting their way back from an opening 8-0 salvo by the Lady Vols, who got six quick points in the post by Cain, who finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Florida was clearly rattled at that point, but Butler called a time out and got the Gators’ heads back in the game.
The Gators rallied to take a 15-14 lead on a Trumae Lucas layup with 11:31 left in the first half and they led again at 28-26 on a Thompson jumper with 3:58 to go. Tennessee closed out the half strong, however, and led 32-29 at the break.
Florida’s turnaround was helped by a switch to a zone, which got more help in the post and kept Cain from having a monster night.
“We didn’t change anything significantly,” Butler said. “We played a little bit more zone because Cain started the game off by dominating in the paint. And obviously, she’s one of the best post players in the country. It’s really tough to guard a player like that one on one.”
The Gators opened the second half on an 11-4 run, keyed by Jordan Jones who knocked down two three-pointers and a pair of free throws.
In building their lead to 56-48, the Gators relied on great anticipation on defense and plenty of help. Florida forced the Lady Vols into a season-high 25 turnovers.
“On every play, we expected to get a stop or to be disruptive,” Butler said. “If that meant down on the floor, we were gonna do that. If that meant tie the ball up, then we were gonna do that. If that meant running through the passing lane, we were gonna do that.”
It was a close call against one of the top teams in the country, but in the Gators’ postgame locker room, there was no talk of a moral victory.
“Moral victory doesn’t count,” Butler said. “This game isn’t gonna have a star next to it that says, ‘Yeah, but they played really hard, and they almost beat them.’ That’s not the way it goes. You win or you lose. I think our team understands that. We left the locker room knowing that we are a better team, and we have to be a better team because Mississippi State is awful good, and we’re gonna be on their home court next.”