Senior guard Tamia Williams scored a game-high 19 points and the Florida Gators scored 15 points off of 17 Kentucky turnovers and outrebounded the Cats 33-30 to take a 70-59 win in Memorial Coliseum. Three UK players scored in double figures, led by freshman guard Samantha Mahoney?s team-high 16. Mahoney charted a near-perfect game, canning 5-of-6 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free-throw line.
Despite trailing by eight (62-54) with 3:45 to go in the game, the Wildcats (14-10, 3-6 Southeastern Conference) clawed to within five points (62-57) at the 2:30 mark before going cold and missing five of their last six shots from the field. Florida made 4-of-4 free-throws down the stretch and outrebounded Kentucky 5-1 in the final minutes.
?It was a tough night for us,? UK Coach Mickie DeMoss said. ?I thought Florida came out and played aggressive on the defensive end. First half, we did not handle their pressure well. It got us a little disjointed on the offensive end. We made a run at them in the second half but just could not keep them off the boards. They got some key offensive boards and we couldn?t get a couple of key stops. I thought we took some bad shots down the stretch. Florida deserves a lot of credit for the way they came in and played tonight.?
Florida (13-10, 4-6 SEC) snapped a five-game losing streak with the victory, shooting 45.0 percent (27-of-60) from the floor, including 51.5 percent (17-of-33) in the first half. The Gators also had three players in double figures with Tashia Morehad scoring 15 and the team?s leading scorer Bernice Mosby adding 12.
Kentucky freshman center Sarah Elliott chipped in 11 points while senior guard/forward Sara Potts added 10. Potts also brought down a team-high seven rebounds. The Wildcats managed to shoot only 38.8 percent (19-of-49) from the field after going cold and making only 27.6 percent (8-of-29) of their shots in the second half. It was UK?s lowest shooting performance since shooting 28.8 (17-of-59) vs. No. 7 Tennessee. UK was outrebounded for the first time in four games, 33-30.
The Cats, trailing 43-37 at the half, stormed out of the locker room behind a resounding three-pointer by point guard Angela Phillips to come within three points (43-40) with 19:53 remaining. The Gators quickly pushed their back out to eight (48-40) with 17:38 left in the game as Williams nailed one of her five three-pointers and Morehead connected on a layup. UK then went on a 7-0 run behind a three-point play from Lexington native Nastassia Alcius to rally the Cats back within one, 48-47 at the 14:08 mark. The Cats took their first lead of the game with 11:07 remaining as Alcius again connected on a three-point play to put Kentucky up 54-52. Back-to-back baskets by Morehead put the Gators back up by two and they would not trail again.
The Wildcats were behind as many as seven points in the first half, but were able to come within one, 30-29, with just over four minutes remaining in the first period. Kentucky committed 12 turnovers in the opening stanza, resulting in 15 Florida points. The Cats were able to score only one point off of the seven UF miscues in the opening stanza.
?Anytime (you?re on the road) in the SEC, you have establish (yourself) because in this arena, with this kind of crowd, you get yourself down and the energy is going to come to the home team,? UF Coach Carolyn Peck said. ??We went back to our pressing and we wanted to set the tone early defensively. I think that really got our players focused. The goal of ours was to take the crowd out of the game as soon as possible. Kentucky doesn?t lose many games at home and I think that?s a lot because of their sixth man.?
Kentucky returns to action Sunday when it travels to Auburn, Ala., to face to Auburn. Tip off is set for 3 p.m. EST in Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum and the game will be carried live on WLXG 1300 AM with Chris Cross.
