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The Florida women’s basketball team (9-10) fell hard to South Carolina (18-0) 77-42 on Monday night after being dominated by the number one team in the country. The task of upsetting the top-ranked team quickly proved to be too cumbersome for the Gators despite the return of guard Carlie Needles from injury. After Florida hung in early, the Gamecocks jumped out to an 11-4 lead and never looked back.
The Gators were on their heels for most of the game as South Carolina capitalized on easy, high percentage shots without much resistance from Florida. The Gamecocks scored 46 of their 77 points in the paint and set the tone early in the game with their potent offense and stifling defense beneath the basket.
At halftime, Florida was already down by 23 points as the team struggled to keep the match up competitive. The Gamecocks ran away with the game primarily because the Gators played very poor transition defense. UF seemed to be blinded by the speed of Gamecock guards Bianca Cuevas and Tiffany Mitchell as they pushed the ball and enabled their team to score 14 fastbreak points en route to victory.
Florida coach Amanda Butler says their bad defense was a result of poor communication.
“We gave them a lot of points in transition. And so, that was just again…just sort of panicking. Just not really relying on communication and our structure and the things that we practiced…and gave them a lot of really easy looks in transition. We weren’t communicating, weren’t getting back, we weren’t stopping the ball…didn’t do a good job of anything in transition.”
In addition to South Carolina’s overwhelming competence on both sides of the ball, ice cold shooting from the field, combined with poor shot selection in the paint, made this game nearly impossible for Florida to win. UF shot just 27 percent from the field and scored just 26 points in the paint despite successfully penetrating the lane on numerous occasions.
The Gators leading scorer for the season and for the game, forward Ronni Williams, was the only player to score in double figures as the rest of the team struggled from the field and disappeared for most of the game. Attempts to force feed Williams the ball throughout the game led to many of their frivolous shots and careless passes in the paint.
Gator guard Kayla Lewis says they will try to use this painful experience to help them get better as they move forward.
“We have to learn from this. We practiced hard and, like coach said, and then for us to come out and play the way we did…it’s not good, so we have to come back in the gym and work hard again, but next time bring it onto the court for our next opponent.”
The Gators will try to snap their four game losing skid when they face Arkansas at home on Sunday afternoon. Tip-off is set for noon, but you can catch live coverage of the game on ESPN 850 WRUF starting at 11:45.
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Coach Butler on their transition defense
Lewis talks about learning from this loss
