The University of Florida women’s basketball team used a balanced
offensive attack, which saw all 10 players record at least two points, and a
lockdown defense to hand LSU its first Southeastern Conference loss, 62-58, Sunday
afternoon at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.
Redshirt senior Jordan Jones (Suwanee, Ga.) led the
offensive charge for the Orange and Blue scoring 11 of her 16 points in the
second half to help UF to the victory. Ndidi Madu (Antioch, Tenn.) and Jaterra
Bonds (Gainesville, Fla.) each added nine points for the Gators who
improved to 12-6 overall and 2-3 in SEC play with the victory. The balanced
attack helped UF earn a key 18-12 advantage in bench scoring.
“Obviously I’m very proud of our effort today in every way and I
think we saw for most of the ball game what we’ve been waiting to see - a
complete game where we’re playing tough Florida defense,” said UF head coach Amanda
Butler, who earned her 90th victory in five years with the
Gators. “I’m really proud of the way they bounced back after some really tough
losses that I think would have been very easy for our team to start to hang
their heads and doubt a little bit. I think it would have been really easy for
our kids to have less belief than they did, but they didn’t allow that to
happen. They played with a lot of confidence.”
The win for UF was the first for Butler against LSU and has
now earned at least one win against each of the other SEC schools. Sunday’s
victory marked Florida’s first against the Tigers since a 79-78 overtime
victory on Feb. 16, 2006.
