A season-high 22 points from Lavender Briggs helped spark the Gator offense on Sunday.
FORTH WORTH, Texas – Florida improved to 3-1 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge after defeating Texas Christian, 63-54, on Sunday for their first true road win of the season.
The Gators (7-3, 0-0 SEC) were led offensively by Lavender Briggs who tallied a season-best 22 points, pushing her to 920 career points during her time at Florida. Jordyn Merritt and Kiara Smith also ended in double-figure with 12 points each. The floor general, Smith also ended with 11 rebounds and seven assists, giving her the 10th double-double of her career.
It was a gritty performance for the Orange & Blue, who overcame a 2-of-18 (11.1%) shooting performance from behind the arc, ending 24-of-62 (38.7%) from the floor. The Horned Frogs (3-4, 0-0 Big 12) ended their afternoon 20-of-52 (38.5%) from the floor. Florida assisted on 18 of their 24 field goals.
In the paint, UF held a 38-30 advantage on the glass, also ending with a 6-5 edge in second chance points. TCU did hold the 30-20 advantage in points in the paint.
Defensively, Florida forced the Horned Frogs into 23 turnovers, leading to 19 points off of those giveaways. The Orange & Blue ended with nine steals to TCU’s three, also ending with five blocks, led by a career-best three from Floor Toonders.
Offense was easy to come by from the tip, with Florida racing out to an 11-8 lead at the under five media timeout. Smith, utilizing back-to-back floaters early, earned six of the Gators’ first eight points. With 5:21 on the clock, Briggs connected on a three-pointer from the left elbow to record her 901st career point.
The Horned Frogs would respond with a quick 4-0 spurt to regain a 12-11 advantage, but four-straight points from Zippy Broughton would put the Orange & Blue back on top with 2:43 on the clock. While the Gator defense managed to force four first quarter turnovers, TCU’s defense managed to hold UF scoreless over the final two minutes to own an 18-17 lead after one.
Briggs began to heat up at the start of the second frame, scoring Florida’s first four points in a back-and-forth affair that both squads trade one-point leads until the 5:19 mark when Nina Rickards was able to cut her way through the lane and earn a pair of free throws, giving UF a 27-24 lead.
Texas Christian would again answer, regaining the lead 28-27 following a tough layup with 4:05 left in the quarter. Over the final three minutes of the half the Gators would put together their largest run of the game, using an 8-0 run, with six points coming from Merritt, to take a 37-31 lead into the break.
Largely responsible for the strong end to the second quarter, Florida’s defense held TCU scoreless over the final three minutes while forcing six turnovers in the period. In the tightly contested first half, the teams found themselves tied seven times while also seeing 15 lead changes.
As impressive as the offense was during the first 20 minutes, defense took over in the third quarter. After beginning the quarter with a triple, TCU would go scoreless over the next 4:49, marking a 1-of-6 start from the field. The Gators struggled just as much early, starting 1-of-7 from the field before Merritt intercepted a pass from the Horned Frogs and took it the other way to give UF a 41-34 lead at the 4:48 mark.
During the third quarter, both teams would end a combined 8-of-31 from the floor, but four points from Briggs and a layup from Merritt would extend Florida’s lead to nine with 21 seconds remaining before holding the lead, 47-40, with one to play.
It was a sloppy start to the final frame for UF, recording four turnovers in the first three minutes. Defensively, however, the Gators did not allow a field goal during that time to maintain the lead. The Horned Frogs would trim the lead to four points, but a four-point answer from Briggs and a pair at the line from Smith would give the Gators their biggest lead of the game at 10 with 5:09 remaining.
The Florida lead would peak at 13 following a triple from Briggs triple with 4:06 on the clock. A 5-0 run from the opposition see the lead cut to eight points with 2:50 remaining, but that’s as close as the Horned Frogs would get as the Gators would hold on for the 63-54 victory.
After spending 15 days on the road over the past month, Florida will return home to Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center on Wednesday, Dec. 8 to take-on Atlantic-10 preseason favorite Dayton at 2 p.m. ET.
Postgame Bites
– Florida improved to 3-1 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge with the victory.
– The Gators now own a 2-1 lead in the all-time series with TCU.
– Briggs’ 22 points pushed her to 920 career points, just 80 away from 1,000.
– With four free throws made, Smith passed Merlakia Jones (1991-95) for the 15th-most made in Florida history.
– Smith is now at 1190 points, which is 22nd in school history. She is currently chasing Haley Lorenzen who ended at 1214 points.
– With seven assists on the day, Smith sits at 339 career assists, 12th in school history.
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