BATON ROUGE, La. – Florida women’s basketball faced no easy task in front of a sold-out crowd in Baton Rouge, La., but the Gators battled to the end before narrowly falling to No. 11 LSU, 66-61.
Nina Rickards led the Gators (20-7, 10-4 SEC) with a season-high 17 points to go along with nine rebounds while Kiara Smith and Zippy Broughton added 13 and 10 points, respectively. As a team, the Gators shot 23-of-62 (37.1%) from the floor and 4-of-18 (22.2%) from deep.
On the other side of the ball, Florida made life difficult on the Tigers (23-4, 11-3 SEC). LSU ended the day shooting 22-of-66 (33.3%) from the floor and 0-of-8 from three-point range. The difference of the game came at the free throw line, as the Tigers ended 22-of-32 (68.8%) at the charity stripe compared to just 11-of-22 (50%) from UF.
On the glass, the Tigers held a slight edge at 49-45. Despite the advantage, the Orange & Blue led in second chance points, 20-18. Rickards’ nine rebounds led the effort for Florida, while Jordyn Merritt grabbed eight boards, Broughton pulled in seven and Smith six.
One aspect of the game where the Gators were dominant, UF raced to a 24-6 advantage in fast break points, pushing the tempo on the Tigers.
The Tigers came out amped to their sold-out crowd on Sunday, but that didn’t deter the Gators early. After LSU converted a jumper to begin the game, Broughton immediately found a bolting Rickards on the other end to get on the board. Rickards would score six of the Gators’ first eight points to help even the game at eight with 5:06 left in the quarter.
With the game tied at eight, the Tigers would use a 7-0 run to take a 15-8 lead with 2:02 left on the clock. Merritt would put an end to the run with a much needed three-pointer coming out of a Florida timeout, pulling UF back within four. LSU would take a 17-12 lead into the second quarter, however.
Florida opened the second quarter with the first four points to pull within 17-16, thanks to tough plays in the paint from Merritt and Jeriah Warren, who was playing in front of family in Louisiana. After two free throws from the opposition, Smith would find Rickards at the top of the key to pull even with the Tigers at the 6:47 mark.
LSU managed to push their lead back to five following a 6-1 spurt, but a 4-0 answer from Broughton and Smith once again closed the gap to 25-24 with 3:24 left in the half. Broughton would again come through for the Gators, using a pull-up jumper late in the half to give UF a 26-25 lead heading into the break.
Despite their own struggles from the floor, Florida’s defense made the Tigers’ lives difficult on the offensive end, holding them to 0-of-5 from three-point range in the half and just 10-of-36 (27.8%) overall.
In a back-and-forth start to the third period, Faith Dut would give the Gators a boost, scoring four of the first six points to help the Orange & Blue to a 32-29 lead. Both teams would continue to trade buckets until a small 7-2 run from the Tigers gave them the lead, 38-36, with 3:47 on the clock.
A pair of Merritt free throws would tie the game at 38, but the opposition immediately answered with an and-one opportunity at the other end, making it 40-38 in favor of LSU. After a Dut layup would even the game once again, the Tigers reeled-off four-straight points to take a 44-40 lead into the final frame.
Rickards came out for the Gators to start the fourth frame, scoring the first four points to even the game at 44 right away. After the opposition quickly grabbed the lead, Broughton connected on a triple from the right wing to give the Gators a 47-46 lead with 7:21 left in the game.
Keeping with the theme of the game, both teams continued to exchange leads until LSU converted an old-fashioned three-point play with 5:08 on the clock to take a 53-50 lead. The Tiger lead would swell to 56-50 before Rickards ended the run with a driving layup at the 3:06 mark. LSU again extended their lead to six at 58-52, but back-to-back buckets by Smith and Rickards made it just a two-point game, 58-56, with under a minute remaining.
The Tigers earned multiple stops to push their lead back to five with under thirty seconds to go, but Dut continued to make things interesting after draining a corner three, making it 61-59 with 18 seconds remaining. Two would be as close as the Gators would get, however, as LSU held on for a 66-61 victory.
The Gators will hit the road once again on Thursday, Feb. 24 when they head to Nashville, Tenn., for a matchup with Vanderbilt.
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