Iwuchukwu-Led Florida Women’s Basketball Wins on Road
For the first time this women’s basketball season, Florida’s leading scorer was not Kiyomi McMiller.
This title was taken over in Sunday’s game by Vivian Iwuchukwu, who scored 19 points by shooting 7-of-8 from the field and contributing four rebounds, four assists and one steals without a turnover across 33 minutes.
Florida improves to 4-3 in its all-time series against Chattanooga with the 64-58 win.
The Gators managed to win all three games in seven days to start the Tammi Reiss era.
UF led the game for more than 25 minutes with its highest lead coming in the fourth quarter when Vanessa Harris’ jumper gave Florida a nine-point lead.
For its first game on the road this season, Florida struggled with shooting. After the first quarter, the Gators were 1-of-6 from the 3-point line and under .500 from the charity line, a trend which improved slightly as the Gators found their rhythm.
Florida finished with 28 attempts from the free-throw line and only 19 made, bringing the team’s percentage to 67.9%.
The Gators also struggled from beyond the arc, their first time being unable to consistently connect from distance this season. Florida shot 17.6% from the 3-point line against the Mocs (1-2) despite shooting 42% in its 30-point win against UCF.
In the first two games of the season, four players notched career highs and school records.
McMiller, the transfer guard from Penn State, recorded a career high 42 points Thursday against UCF. In the season opener against Bucknell, she also set a program record with the highest single-game points of a Gator in her debut performance.
Her first basket against Chattanooga, though, didn’t drop until nine minutes into the game.
She was held to just five points in the first half, a stark contrast to her 21-point half against UCF.
One of the goals Florida set for the season was to average below 12 turnovers per game. The Gators struggled to manage the ball against the Mocs with 13 turnovers coming from miscommunication on the court and offensive fouls.
However, Florida also forced 11 turnovers from the Mocs, including four first-half steals from Harris.
As the only player to travel from Rhode Island with Reiss, Harris was named as one of the team’s “leaders” (Reiss’ version of captains). Following her freshman year as the Atlantic 10 Sixth-Woman of the Year, the call-up to be a starter for an SEC program could’ve been startling.
Over the first three games of the season, she’s proven herself as a leader, recording her career high of 26 points against Bucknell in the season opener.
Her impact Sunday came on the defensive end as she tallied five steals and four rebounds despite accumulating four personal fouls.
On the other side of the court, Chattanooga appeared unable to miss a shot with TaTiana Stovall, Izzy McPherson and Lydia Ledford having double-digit days.
Florida was given a break by the Mocs 56.3% free-throw shooting, which could have been the difference maker of the game.
Coming off the bench, one of Florida’s points leaders was Jade Weathersby. As Florida’s sole returner from the 2025-26 season, Weathersby has been looking for an opportunity to contribute to the team.
She did so with the Gators only 3-pointer in the first half, a field goal and a pair of free throws. In her 27 minutes, she also recorded 12 rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal without a single turnover.
Weathersby has been Florida’s biggest contributor off the bench this season, most recently recording a double-double against UCF with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Reiss joins Carol Ross, Debbie Yow and Carolyn Peck as Florida women’s basketball’s only coaches to win their first three games. The Florida program record is held by Yow, who won the first nine games of her career with the Gators.
To tie Yow’s record, Reiss’ Gators would need to remain undefeated through their matchup against Miami on Dec. 2.
Florida next hosts USF at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Category: Gator Sports, Gators Women's Basketball, SEC
