Freshman Sha Brooks scored 21 points while the Gators' four seniors combined for 41 points leading Florida to a 68-61 upset over No. 21/23 Kentucky in front of a Memorial Coliseum crowd of 5,950.
Dalila Eshe contributed 17 points, hitting all seven of her free throw attempts to extend her made streak to 32, while Brittany Davis posted her fifth double-double of the season and her career with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Senior Sarah Lowe, who played all 40 minutes, added seven points with seven assists, while Danielle Santos posted five points with six rebounds in 38 minutes of action. Marshae Dotson, who had more than 27 friends and family members drive three hours from Ohio to see her play, sparked UF off the bench with an offensive putback and three rebounds in eight minutes.
“This was a good win especially because it was on the road in the SEC,” UF head coach Carolyn Peck said. “Our seniors really stepped up big and exhibited great leadership, namely Sarah Lowe at the point position.”
Florida, which improved to 17-5 overall and 5-4 in the Southeastern Conference, avenged its earlier season loss to the Wildcats (15-6, 4-4 SEC) in Gainesville.
“In the first game in Gainesville, we really focused on defending their inside game since they are so much taller,” Peck said. “But their outside shooters really hurt us, so we changed up our defense to focus on that. They only had three three-pointers this game and that was huge for us.”
Neither team was able to mount a significant lead in the game, which featured 10 lead changes and five tied scores. The last tie came with just under eight minutes remaining when Eshe scored the first four points in a mini 7-2 run that proved to be the difference, as the Gators never trailed again en route to the win.
Florida was able to produce its seven win this season after trailing at halftime, outscoring the Wildcats 39-30 in the final 20 minutes when they shot 37.5 percent (12-32) and held Kentucky to a 27.6 percent (8-29) shooting mark. The Wildcats did hold a 47-40 rebounding advantage, but it was much better than the 16-rebound edge UK had in the first meeting.
“Kentucky had 55 rebounds the last time we played them, the most of them coming in the second half,” Peck said. “I challenged our team at halftime, specifically the seniors not to let that happen again. They really responded.”
Sha Brooks hit the first field goal of the second half to tie the game, before UK stepped up its rebounding effort which resulted in the next four points. But Marshae Dotson's offensive putback sparked a 6-0 run, capped by a pair of buckets by Dalila Eshe to swing the advantage back UK's way, 37-35, with 16:15 remaining. The Wildcats scored the next three points before Brittany Davis hit a short jumper off a pass from Depree Bowden and the lead change continued.
Dalila Eshe then converted a three-point play and hit another inside bucket as part of UF's 9-2 run that resulted in a 46-40 lead with 12:20 remaining after Sarah Lowe found a streaking Bowden for a layup.
Sarah Elliott finally hit UK's first field in nearly four minutes, also converting a three-point play, before Carly Ormerod canned two free throws that cut UF's lead to one, 46-45, with 10:26 left. Brooks hit a slashing layup to give the Gators a slight cushion and the teams traded free throws before Samantha Mahoney hit an inside jumper, as UF's leads shrank to 49-48 with 9:10 remaining. Nastassia Alcius hit one from the charity strip to tie the game, before Eshe countered with four straight from the line, extending her made free throw streak to 32 and giving UF a 53-49 lead with 6:33 on the clock.
Alcius worked a back-door play with Humphrey to perfection and UK closed within two at the 5:21 mark before Florida got a bucket from Danielle Santos and one free throw from Brittany Davis to climb to 56-51 with 4:05 remaining. Mahoney hit a shot for the Wildcats and excited the crowd, but Davis sank a 10-foot hook shot with just under three minutes left to draw the lead back to five with just under three minutes remaining.
Alcius followed with a 12-footer from the left corner, but Brooks converted a three-point play after a slashing layup and Sarah Lowe followed with two free throws with 53 ticks left, as UF's lead grew to eight, 63-55. Jenny Pfeiffer nailed three consecutive free throws with 10 seconds remaining, but Brooks polished off the game with a pair from the stripe to end the scoring.
Samantha Mahoney led UK with 12 points, while Sarah Elliott added 12 with nine rebounds. Jennifer Humphrey collected 13 boards for the Wildcats, who managed 23 second-chance points.
Florida made the first run of the game, using a 7-0 spurt to take a 14-8 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining in the opening period. But Kentucky stormed back with a 17-3 spree with seven points from Samantha Mahoney to take a 25-17 advantage with 4:40 on the clock. Dalila Eshe hit two free throws and Sha Brooks hit a driving layin to get the Gators within four, but the Wildcats slowly built their lead back to eight, 31-23, with under two minutes left in the half. But Brooks, who led all scorers with 11 points in the opening half, got hot and provided two three-pointers to get UF within two, 31-29, to end the scoring.
UF, which shot just 33.3 percent (10-30) in the first half, committed nine turnovers that resulted in 14 points for UK, which hit 39.4 percent (13-33) during the game and held a 22-19 rebounding edge during the opening frame that featured seven lead changes and one tie score.
Florida returns to action on Thursday, when the team travels to Starkville, Miss., to play Mississippi State beginning at 7 p.m. ET. That game will be televised live on ComCast and can be heard on the radio in Gainesville on WRUF AM-850.
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