The 22nd ranked Gator women’s basketball team (16-4, 4-3) had its two game winning streak snapped after losing to Missouri (16-4, 3-4), 79-64 on Sunday afternoon in Columbia, Missouri.
After initially trailing to start the contest, Florida clawed its way back to tie the game at 21 by the end of the first quarter. The Gators continued to keep pace with Missouri and eventually went into halftime tied up at 38.
The turning point of the game came in the third quarter when the Tigers began pulling away after going on a 21-12 run that lasted from the six minute mark until the end of the period.
Gator coach Amanda Butler says their defense really hurt their chances of winning the game.
“I think we didn’t communicate good enough. For us and for what we want to do offensively, we have to play great defense. We didn’t do that in the third quarter and we didn’t get offensive rebounds. We just had some critical errors at critical junctions. Your margin for error against a great team on their home floor is really, really tiny and ours was too great tonight to overcome.”
Florida shot just 35 percent in the second half, while Missouri shot a whopping 50 percent from the field.
Junior guard Morgan Stock led the way for the Tigers as she scored 20 points on 77 percent shooting. She also shot 80 percent from beyond the arc to help propel Missouri to the win.
Guard Carlie Needles (14) and forward Ronni Williams (12) were the only two Gators to reach double figures scoring as Florida’s bench was outscored by the Tigers 44-25.
Butler says, in the end, Missouri played just played a lot better than they did.
“I think we got beat by a good team and a great SEC team in front of a fantastic SEC crowd. They defended their home court really well and we have to give them a lot of credit for how they played.”
The Gators will look to bounce back on Thursday when they face Arkansas on the road.