The Florida women’s basketball team (9-6, 0-2 SEC) had their first SEC road game Thursday night and the Gators came back to Gainesville with a loss from the LSU Tigers. The final score in Baton Rouge was 78-67.
The Gators got double-double performances from two players. Junior Haley Lorenzen had 18 points and 12 rebounds in her first double-double performance in SEC play. Senior Ronni Williams led the Gators in scoring with 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds despite being in foul trouble. And, she received a nasty injury as well, according to Florida coach Amanda Butler.
The Gators outrebounded the Tigers by 27 but still came up short in the contest.
Final
Gators fall to LSU, 78-67 pic.twitter.com/JueFGZrUxF— Gator WBasketball (@GatorsWBK) January 6, 2017
Florida hit only 38.5 percent of their shots and turnovers didn’t help either. The Gators had 28 in the game.
“We just turned the ball over too much; again, it’s really disappointing because it seems like it’s silly turnovers,” Butler said.
In the third quarter the Gators missed their first 14 shots from the floor and made only 2 of 19 field goals, while the Tigers hit 8 of 14.
Brooke Copeland, Delicia Washington, Lorenzen, and Williams gave some hope for the Orange and Blue in the fourth quarter when the Gators cut a 15 point deficit to a six with five minutes left. The Gators had a 9-0 run midway through the fourth quarter thanks to them but it wasn’t enough as LSU fought back with a 9-2 run of its own to seal the win.
The Tigers were lead by Chloe Jackson who dropped in 34 points. LSU’s steals, mid range jump shots, and creation of an offense from their steals really gave the Gators trouble as well.
Up next the Gators will return to Gainesville and host nationally ranked South Carolina (12-1, 2-0 SEC) on Sunday.
#Gators leading scorer for the beginning of the 2016-17 season transfers to Maryland https://t.co/o2uR03jb0Y
— Cierra Clark (@cierrarosec) January 6, 2017