Florida overcame an eight-minute scoring drought in the fourth quarter to down the Flyers.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – An eight-minute scoring drought in the final quarter of Wednesday’s game against Atlantic 10 Conference preseason favorite, Dayton, was not enough to keep Florida women’s basketball from upsetting the Flyers, 60-57.
The Gators (8-3, 0-0 SEC) were led by a trio of athletes on the offensive side of the ball, with Lavender Briggs ending with a team-high 18 points to go along with four rebounds and three assists. Kiara Smith, the floor general, put together a full game with 12 points, nine rebounds and seven assists while Jordyn Merritt ended with 11 points and eight boards.
For the game, Florida shot 23-of-57 (40.4%) from the floor while holding Dayton (6-3, 0-0 A10) to just 23-of-62 (37.1%) shooting. The Flyers were led by sophomore Makira Cook with 20 points and three rebounds. Bench contributions played a key role in UF’s success, outscoring the Flyer bench 23-2.
Led by Smith’s nine rebounds, Florida also controlled the glass with a 42-37 advantage, including 16 offensive rebounds. The rebounding effort by the Orange & Blue saw the Gators outscore Dayton in second chance points, 13-12.
The defensive effort from the home squad proved to be the difference in the game. Florida forced the Flyers into 16 turnovers, leading to 13 fast break points. Of those 16 turnovers, nine came by the way of steals with Briggs, Smith and freshman Taliyah Wyche all recording two. Wyche also made her presence felt in the post, recording a game-high two of Florida’s seven blocked shots.
Wednesday’s match started with no shortage of offense, with Florida racing out to an 11-5 lead following a dime from Smith to Floor Toonders for a lay-in. The Flyers would storm back with an 11-0 run, featuring back-to-back triples from Jenna Giacone, to take a 16-11 lead.
After falling behind, 19-17, at the end of the first, the Gator offense would come roaring to life in the second quarter. Five early points from Dayton would increase their lead to 24-19, but Florida would use seven-straight points to lead 26-24.
Again, the opposition would respond, reclaiming the lead following another Giacone jumper to make it 28-26 with 5:35 on the clock. The floodgates would open for the Orange & Blue, however, with an 11-0 run, capped off by a Merritt layup, pushing the Gators to a commanding 37-28 lead. Briggs, who ended the first half with 14 of her 18 points, would drain a buzzer-beater in the paint to send Florida to the locker ahead, 40-30.
Offensively, UF connected on 16-of-32 attempts from the field in the first half with 12 of their makes coming from assists. The Gators did hold Dayton to just 11 attempts from the floor in the second quarter, while ending with 18 shots of their own.
Smith would stay aggressive to open the second half, immediately drawing a foul and knocking down a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 12, but Dayton would cut the lead to 42-36 following a 6-0 spurt with 7:47 on the clock.
The Flyers managed to cut the lead down to five, but Zippy Broughton would connect on a triple to spark a 7-0 run for the Gators and reclaim a 50-38 advantage late in the quarter. Both teams would exchange buckets before Florida took a 54-44 lead into the final frame.
Dayton, the Atlantic 10 preseason favorite for a reason, turned their defensive intensity up several notches in the fourth quarter. Managing to hold Florida scoreless for the first 8:11 of the frame, the Flyers would grab the lead at 55-54 following a Cook fast break layup. Smith would end the 11-0 run, connecting on a layup of her own with 1:49 on the clock.
With just 56 second on the clock, Cook managed to slice through the UF defense to pull back within one, but Briggs would hit the biggest shot of the game with 29 seconds remaining to put the Flyers away, 60-57.
One of the most encouraging signs for the Gators came from their ability to close out the Flyers despite shooting just 7-of-25 (28%) during the second half and 1-of-7 (14.3%) from deep. Dayton didn’t fare much better, shooting 11-of-36 (30.6%) in the second half and 1-of-6 (16.7%) from long range.
Florida is back in action on Sunday to host in-state rival, Florida State, in Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center at 1 p.m. ET.
Quotables
Head Coach Kelly Rae Finley
…On her thoughts of the game
“I thought it was an excellent win. I think that Dayton is an outstanding basketball team with a lot of seniors and a lot of experience winning ball games. That was a good win for our program coming off of TCU and I’m just inspired by our team, their effort, their desire for individual and collective growth and their will to compete with each other and celebrate each other. So that was a really good win for us today.”
…On Smith’s performance
“She almost had a triple double, that’s her second game in a row. She’s getting close, but you know that just speaks to her overall game. She helps us in so many ways. She is a floor leader for us, and you know if you want to sag and sit under like they did late game there we had that dry spell of scoring on offense. She moves the ball, she understands the game, she has a very high IQ, and her effort is really second to none.”
…On adjustments made in the fourth quarter
“We were focused on finishing every play. I think we are gaining confidence in who we are and belief in that when we put in the work every possession just like we do in practice, that good things will happen. And we can live with the results regardless of when we put in a maximum effort. Adjustment-wise, you know we just really needed to key in on their big three. I thought we did a good job of guarding them and being really intentional with them tonight. I think they ended with holding 21 to four points. That was really huge for us.”
Graduate Guard Kiara Smith
…On today’s performance
“Honestly every game I just try to do what the team needs me to do and what it calls for me to do. Whether that’s to score, to rebound, to assist and I think for tonight’s game, or this evenings game, it was just for me to do all three. I just try to do everything that, like I said, the team needs me to do and everybody on the entire roster did exactly what we needed them to do in clutch moments and everything.”
…On being back at home
“It feels great, it definitely does just because being on the road is fun and everything, but it doesn’t feel the same just when you’re playing on your home court with your own fans, you know just the people that support you the most. It’s great to play for them and play with each other on our own floor.”
…On chemistry with Lavender Briggs
“We spend a lot of time just working out together, just knowing actually what each other wants and I think that playing with her for three years now, I just know exactly where she wants the ball, how she wants it and the timing. It’s the same thing vice versa, so we just talk to each other all throughout the game to let each other know what we’re seeing and we make plays off of what one another sees.”
…On what happened between the first and second quarter
“Basketball is just a game of runs, you know. When we’re hot, we’re hot and when the other team is hot, they’re hot. It’s inevitable that one team is just going to have at some point a scoring drive and we did but I think our bounce-back was very good. We kept talking to each other, we kept talking about how we needed to get stops and that brings forth our offense. Once we did that, you know, it was easy.”
Postgame Bites
– Florida took a 3-0 lead in the all-time series with the Flyers.
– The Gators end the non-conference 3-1 against Atlantic 10 competition.
– The Orange & Blue earned the best win of their season, as Dayton was 91st in the latest NET rankings.
– Smith has tallied 20 assists over three games, the most in a three-game stretch since Delicia Washington recorded 21 in three-straight games from Nov. 23, 2017-Dec. 3, 2017.
– Briggs moves to 938 career points, just 62 points away from becoming the 27th-member of the 1,000-point club.
– Smith now boasts 1,202 career points, just 13 away from passing Haley Lorenzen for 21st in Gators history.
– Smith also sits in the top-15 in Gators history in several other statistical categories including consecutive starts (87, fourth), assists (346, 11th), minutes (3,288, 11th), free throws made (264, T-13th) and steals (175, 13th).
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