Despite being triple-teamed for much of the game, University of Florida senior All-American Vanessa Hayden still was able to record 14 points and 15 rebounds helping the Gators defeat Alabama 76-69 Thursday evening in the O'Connell Center.
In addition to logging her 13th double-double of the season and the 46th of her career, Hayden also dished a career-high six assists, as UF's perimeter game came alive with five different Gators hitting at least one three-pointer en route to a 9-of-19 effort from beyond the arc. Eighteen seconds into the game, Hayden collected her 1,000th career rebound as she became just the fifth different Gator to top the 1,000-plateau for scoring and rebounding
Tashia Morehead led UF (14-5, 4-2 SEC) in scoring with 19 points, including three treys, while grabbing seven rebounds and canning both of her free throw attempts to extend her streak to 20 consecutive from the charity stripe. Tishona Gregory also recorded three 3-pointers en route to 14 points, while Bernice Mosby added 13 points and seven rebounds in the winning effort.
"You got to pick your poison. Right now we're really thin in the post and I don't think that we had anybody on the floor that could guard Vanessa (Hayden) one-on-one without fouling out in the first half," Alabama head coach Rick Moody said. "We had to help off with our guards and she did a good job of locating the open player. There were times we did a good job of rotating and picking up that player, but they hit something like five out of their first six threes. I knew that would be a problem if they were making their shots, but we had to try and take away their inside game."
Monique Bivins led Alabama (10-9, 2-4 SEC) with 19 points, while Katie Sipe added 15 points behind a 5-of-9 effort from the three-point line. Kate Mastin came off the bench for 12 points and Dee Merriweather added 11 points with eight rebounds.
"You've got to complement Alabama. I've looked at the stat sheets the last few games and they're definitely a team that hangs around in the first half and then they come after you in the second half and that's what happened tonight," UF head coach Carolyn Peck said. "They came out firing, creating shots and making threes. Their defensive intensity picked up. I think they did the best job of collapsing down on Vanessa (Hayden). I think she did a very good job of finding ways to get the ball out to our guards, so it was a very good inside-out attack."
Florida started the game with a dominating 14-4 run, leaving the Tide struggling for much of the half to catch up. In the first half alone, junior Tashia Morehead lit up the boards scoring 13 points, nine of which came from her contributions from three-point-range. Florida's impressive defensive effort held Alabama's leading perimeter attackers, Monique Bivins and Katie Sipe to nine and four points respectively.
After returning from the half with a 40-30 lead, the Gators struggled a bit to get into a rhythm, as the Tide went on a 19-9 run, sparked Alabama's Dee Merriweather, to tie the score at 49-all with 12:11 left to play. However, the Gators would not give up as they continued their offensive and defensive pressure sparked by two crucial free throws from Morehead and an off-balance three from sophomore Bernice Mosby with 11:29 to play.
Alabama attempted one last run to catch the Gators with 3:40 left to play, when Bivins converted on two crucial free throws to bring the Tide to within one point, 67-66. But Florida finished strong, going on an 8-to-3 run, sparked once again by a critical Hayden free throw and a three-point field goal from the top of the arch by junior Tishona Gregory with 1:33 remaining that gave UF a 73-64 advantage. Sipe was off the mark on a 3-point attempt and Hayden collected the miss, as the Gators ran time off the clock before Morehead nailed a tough 12-footer with 39 seconds left that extended UF's lead to nine, 75-66.
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