Courtney Cooper and Vanessa Hayden both recorded double-doubles as the No. 14 Florida women’s basketball team topped Kentucky, 81-59 on Thursday night before a crowd of 1,306 at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville. UF improves to 17-7 with the win and 7-4 in league play while the Wildcats’s tenth straight loss leaves UK at 8-16 (1-10 SEC).
With 17 points and 14 rebounds, it was Hayden’s 13th double-double in 24 games this year and Cooper’s third with her 15 points and 14 rebounds. Hayden also added seven blocks in the contest, as the current NCAA blocked shot leader broke the school single season record in the process. Monique Cardenas led all UF scorers with 18 points while CeCe Helm poured in a game-high 22 for Kentucky, which did not receive any points off of its bench in the game.
“This really was a good win for us,” Lady Gator head coach Carol Ross said. “We did well spreading out the points among out starting five. We pounded the boards and I really love how we carried ourselves on the defensive end rebounding-wise and on offense too.”
“We played an up and down game,” UK head coach Bernadette Mattox said. “What hurt us was our lack of second shots. We have not been blocking out. That’s what’s been haunting us all along.”
Florida held a slight edge through the opening 10 minutes. UK took its only lead of the game, 6-5, on a short jumper by Shambrica Jones at 17:10 but UF reclaimed the advantage on a long Brandi McCain three moments later and would not relinquish it. Kentucky closed the lead to four twice but after drawing close at 16-10 with 13:35 left in the half, UF went on a quick 7-0 run, with five points coming from Trish Patterson, to take a 11 point lead at 23-12. Florida matched that lead twice more prior to the 7:30 mark when the Lady Gators took a 29-18 advantage on a McCain jumper in the lane.
UK’s defense forced a pair of Lady Gator turnovers and Rita Adams converted on a pair of spectacular drives to the hoop to cut the margin to six points at 31-25 at 4:20, forcing UF to burn a 30 second timeout. The Lady Gators took charge out of the break. Trish Patterson hit a turn- around jumper in the lane as the shot clock expired to put UF up eight. The Lady Gator defense forced two turnovers and a pair of missed shots while buckets by Patterson and Tara Taylor at the other end gave UF its largest lead of the half, 12 points, at 37-25 with 1:45 to play. The Lady Gators would eventually take a 39-30 lead to the locker room at intermission.
The two teams traded baskets for the opening minutes of the second half, alternating between a seven and nine point Lady Gator lead until Cooper and Monique Cardenas converted consecutive three-point plays at 16:10 and 15:48 to put UF up 13 at 51-38. Strong offensive rebounding helped UF keep pace in the meantime as the Lady Gators grabbed four offensive rebounds in the first two minutes of the half. Florida would enjoy a tremendous rebounding advantage in the second half, enabling the Lady Gators to prevent the Wildcats from drawing any closer than 12 points after Cardenas’s afore mentioned three point play.
Five times in the first 10 minutes of the half UF would expand its lead to 15 points while Helm held the Wildcats in the game. The sophomore center provided 10 of UK’s first 16 points of the half and was the only Wildcat to score over a 6:18 span, including a dazzling hook shot from the low post.
A cold shooting snap by UK helped UF expand its advantage to 17 points on a Tamia Williams three with 8:20 to play. The hoop came in the midst of UK missing five of sox shots, one of them swatted by Hayden, her fifth block of the contest. The block was her 105th of the season, breaking the UF record of 104 set by Quintella Bonner in 1981. It also moved her past former All-American DeLisha Milton and into second place on UF’s career chart with 173. Hayden finished the game with seven blocks.
A short UK run made it a 12 point game at 68-56 with 6:05 to play after a Jones jumper but UF let the Wildcats get no closer. A Cardenas layup and three-point play keyed a 13-3 Lady Gator run to conclude the game, which wrapped up with a 81-59 final.
“I was really happy with our effort down the stretch,” Ross said. “Having that killer instinct was a byproduct of Oxford (a tight 74- 73 win at Ole Miss on Feb. 10).”
UF held a 34-15 rebounding edge in the second half, pacing the team to a 78-58 advantage in shots taken during the game and ultimately a comfortable 81-59 victory. UF won the battle of the offensive glass 22-5 in the game.
The Lady Gators return to action on Sunday when they travel to Athens for a game against Georgia at 3:00 pm.
