The University of Florida received total team effort and upset Vanderbilt, 74-69, at Memorial Gym Friday evening.
In a game that was originally scheduled to be played on Thursday, but severe weather in the Nashville area forced officials to postpone the game until Friday evening, the Gators shot 60 percent in the second half when they outscored the Commodores 51-45 to earn their first victory against Vanderbilt in Nashville since Feb. 1, 2004.
The win also snapped a seven-game losing streak to Vanderbilt which held the longest active win streak of any Southeastern Conference team against the Gators. Additionally, Vanderbilt was the 10th of 11 different league teams that has fallen to UF’s fourth-year head coach Amanda Butler, who is a native of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., located just minutes from the Vanderbilt campus.
Florida (16-13, 6-9 SEC) used a 7-0 spurt to take a 58-47 lead with 8:08 remaining after Antioch, Tenn., native Ndidi Madu knocked down a 10-footer from straight away.
Vanderbilt (18-10, 9-6 SEC) rallied with a 13-4 run and closed the Gator lead to two points with 5:33 remaining.
Florida remained composed and got back-to-back driving layups from Lanita Bartley (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Jaterra Bonds (Gainesville, Fla.).
Following a pair of Vandy free throws, Bartley recognized a mismatch inside and fed Azania Stewart (Wood Green, England), who dumped in the short shot with 1:59 on the clock and gave UF a 68-62 lead.
Neither team could score for the next minute-plus, before VU’s Christina Foggie nailed a three-pointer with 28 seconds remaining and the hosts called a timeout, down three.
Stewart stepped to the line and hit both ends of the one-and-one with 24.2 ticks on the clock, but fouled out 10 seconds later and UF’s inside game was at a loss since George had already fouled out of the game.
Tiffany Clarke converted both free throws after drawing the foul on Stewart and brought Vanderbilt within three again, 70-67, with 14.6 on the clock.
Bartley was clutch from the line, as she coolly nailed four straight, two with 13.6 seconds and the others with 5.4 remaining.
Vanderbilt senior Jence Rhoads hit a bucket as the final hour sounded to end the scoring, but it was too late as Florida captured its third true road victory of the year.
Jordan Jones (Suwanee, Ga.) led all scorers with 16 points, as the Gator junior hit 4-of-7 three-pointers and tied her career-high of six rebounds.
Stewart netted her fifth career double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds and Bartley recorded 15 points with six rebounds and seven assists. Madu chipped in all of her six points in the second half, while Bonds added eight points as all nine Gators who suited up for the game scored.
“I’m just so happy for our team, they’ve practiced so hard and prepared so well and we dealt with the Thursday’s delay with such focus,” Butler said. “We were focused and maintained energy. We had players foul out but had others step up in their absence with big minutes. This was an all-around great team win.”
Florida struggled with its shot in the first half, but came out sizzling in the second half, when the team hit 77 percent in during the first eight-plus minutes en route to taking a 51-43 lead with 11:17 on the clock.
Vanderbilt took a 24-23 halftime lead, but Deana Allen (Houma, La.) found a wide open Ndidi Madu (Antioch, Tenn.) in the paint where she gave the Gators a one-point lead.
The Commodores tied the score with one free throw before the teams matched each other’s scoring for the next minute-plus.
With the score knotted at 30, Lanita Bartley, Jennifer George and Brittany Shine mounted a 5-0 Gator run and had the visitors ahead 35-30 with 16:44 on the clock.
The next three buckets of the game were three-pointers, two from Vanderbilt and the other from Jordan Jones (Suwanee, Ga.).
Stewart and George followed with the next three points, before two more Commodore free throws cut UF’s lead to three, 41-38.
Stewart scored Florida’s first eight points of the game, as Vanderbilt countered with similar buckets and the opening minutes featured three tied scores.
Freshman Jaterra Bonds (Gainesville, Fla.) sank the first three-pointer of the game at the 14:06 mark and Lanita Bartley (Jacksonville, Fla.) followed with a inside jumper and gave the Gators a 13-8 lead.
Vanderbilt came back with a trey from Jasmine Lister, but Jordan Jones (Suwanee, Ga.) knocked one down on the other end to keep Florida’s advantage at five with a little more than 10 minutes into the contest.
Lister hit her second bucket of the game and Tiffany Clarke sank one free throw and the hosts cut the Gator lead to two.
After one free throw from Deana Allen (Houma, La.), Vanderbilt continued its run by scoring the next four points and took its first lead of the game when Clarke capped a transition with a layup at the 6:04 mark.
Jones ended the Commodores’ 7-1 run with a three-pointer and Lily Svete (Granger, Ind.) followed with another from the top of the arc and had Florida back up by five, 23-18, with 4:37 left in the opening half.
That bucket forced a Vanderbilt timeout and the Commodores responded with a 6-0 run over the final 4:24 of the period, as neither team was able to find a rhythm and Vanderbilt took a 24-23 lead into the locker room.
Stewart’s eight points to start the Gators’ scoring led UF during the opening half, when it shot a dismal 20.5 percent (8-39). The junior center also collected 10 rebounds during those first 20 minutes, as the battle on the boards was even at 25-all, with the Gators corralling 13 on the offensive end.
Holzer led Vanderbilt with eight points in the first frame, when the hosts hit 33.3 percent (9-27) of its shots and committed 10 turnovers.
