No.16 Gator Women’s Basketball Defeats Arkansas State

The 16th ranked Florida women’s basketball team is now 4-0 on the season after snapping the nation’s longest home win streak in women’s college basketball Tuesday night.

The Arkansas State Red Wolves, who won the Sun Belt Conference this past season had a record of 25 straight home wins. The Gators ended that with their 71-60 win.

#Gators are 4-0
Let's #GoGators! pic.twitter.com/LmFkjvYC7X

— Gators Women’s Basketball (@GatorsWBK) November 23, 2016

Eleanna Christinaki was the leading scorer for the Gators with a total of 23 points. Three other Gators also finished with double figure scoring totals to help a balanced offensive attack.

The Gators and Red Wolves were close through a lot of the game. Arkansas State was within one point in the second half after hitting four straight 3 point shots.  Christinaki, Haley Lorenzen and Tyshara Fleming reacted to this and led a 12-2 run which built a double digit lead for the Orange and Blue.  Arkansas State responded with eight straight points and were only trailing the Gators by three points at 50-47 with 9:29 left.

The teams were back and forth but at the end the Gators went on a 17-9 run to get another win on the road.

Gator coach Amanda Butler was happy with the win but wasn’t too pleased with the way the Gators played saying her team didn’t have a lot of flow and things didn’t seem to be smooth offensively.” 

The Red Wolves were beating the Gators to the ball as well as Florida gave up 20 offensive rebounds.

The Gators also didn’t have their full rotation Tuesday night which allowed others to step up. Brooke Copeland, who’s in the normal rotation, has a foot injury and sat out this game.

Final stats from tonight's #Gator win! pic.twitter.com/yRaRjcB8ju

— Gators Women’s Basketball (@GatorsWBK) November 23, 2016

Dyandria Anderson played 36 minutes for Florida and came close to a triple-double with six points, nine assists and eight rebounds.   Butler said the junior guard “played like an upperclassman today.”

Another player who came in and stood out was Tyshara Fleming. The 6″4″ senior center used her size to block shots and that helped the Gators as well. Fleming also had no turnovers and was one rebound away from a double double.

Butler hopes to use the short time they have until their next contest to work on some things, and sees it as a challenge she hopes to embrace. 

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Up next for the Gators is a trip to Evanston, Illinois to face the Northwestern University Wildcats on Friday.