The Florida women’s basketball team (13-5, 3-2 SEC) will face another road test Thursday when it heads into Knoxville to take on the 11th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers (14-4, 3-2 SEC) for the 50th matchup in the teams’ history.
The Gators will be looking to turn it around on this one-game trip. The team has been struggling as of late, having lost two consecutive games, both in SEC play.
Prior to this skid, the Gators had been riding high with a nine-game winning streak while starting 3-0 in the SEC.
Then back-to-back losses to LSU on the road and Georgia at home halted them in their tracks.
The Gators can pin the lack of rebounding as a key contributor to the two losses. The Gators were dominated on the glass 50-29 by the Tigers. They nearly matched that difference in rebounding in the loss to Georgia when they were outrebounded 47-27.
Florida coach Amanda Butler has acknowledged that the team has an issue with rebounding. Butler knows that the struggles come partly from the lack of size and depth, but she has categorized a large chunk of the issues having come from not stopping the preventable plays – hustling for loose balls, boxing out, and plays of that type.
This will not be an easy task to overcome. Tennessee comes into the game first in the SEC and third in the country in rebounding margin at +13.9 per game.
The Gators come into the game with a 2-1 record on the season against ranked opponents. They knocked off then-number six Kentucky and then-number 25 Arkansas.
Florida senior guard Jaterra Bonds comes into the game as the team’s leading scorer at 16.7 points per game and will look to keep it up against the Volunteers.
Kayla Lewis is leading the Gators in rebounding at 8.4 boards per game, and the team will try to lean on her to continue her high level of production.
Coverage of the game can be heard live at 6:25 on ESPN850 WRUF-AM.