St. John's used a 16-0 run over a nine-minute span midway through the second half and defeated the Florida women's basketball team, 61-47, in the first round of the FIU Thanksgiving Classic Friday evening at the U.S. Century Bank Arena.
With the halftime score tied at 30-all, the Red Storm (4-0) outscored the Gators, 31-17, in the second half, hitting 48 percent (12-25) from the floor, while UF managed only a 28.6 percent effort (8-28) in the final frame, including a 1-of-11 performance from beyond the arc.
“We had a stretch in the second half when we just quit scoring,” UF head coach Amanda Butler said. “We didn't put the ball in the hole. When we had good looks, we didn't convert them. It's tough when we've got players who play a lot of minutes and aren't giving us any offensive production. The effort was there. The fight was there, but when you're playing a good team, you have to have results, too. We also got killed on the boards.”
Sharielle Smith (Bradenton, Fla.) scored a team-high nine points with five rebounds for Florida (2-3), which didn't produce a double-figure scorer for the first time in Butler's two-plus years with the Gators.
St. John's held a commanding 45-33 rebound advantage over Florida, while shot a mere 32.2 percent overall (19-59), including 21.7 percent from the three-point arc (5-23). The Gators also turned the ball over 21 times that resulted in 22 Red Storm points.
Florida scored the opening points of the second half and the teams traded field goals for nearly the first six minutes before Jennifer George (Orlando, Fla.) and Sharielle Smith (Bradenton, Fla.) connected on consecutive scores that gave UF a 42-38 lead with 13:17 to play.
The Gators' offense then went cold, as St. John's ripped off a devastating 16-0 run over the next nine minutes and assumed a 54-42 lead with less than four minutes left in the game. Florida missed 10 consecutive shots and turned the ball over seven times during that stretch, during when the Red Storm converted those miscues into 10 points.
Smith finally ended the draught with 3:05 to go, draining a trey from the top of the arc. George followed with a tough bucket inside and dropped the deficit to seven points, 54-47 with 2:24 remaining.
Shenneika Smith led all scorers with 17 points, while Da'Shena Stevens tallied 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Red Storm, which converted 15-of-20 from the free throw line, compared to UF's 4-of-6 effort.
Florida failed to score again and St. John's hit 7-of-8 free throws in the final 2:30 to secure the victory. The Gators (2-3) will face host FIU (2-3) in the consolation game on Sunday, Nov. 29, at approximately 4 p.m., while the Red Storm take on Saint Joseph's for the title at 2 p.m. The audio from Florida's game will air live in Gainesville on WBXY-FM 99.5 and through the internet at www.GatorZone.com, the official website of the Florida Gators.
The first half featured the teams trading scoring runs, as St. John's opened the game scoring the first five points. Susan Yenser's (Marietta, Ga.) three-pointer at the 16:58 mark began an 11-0 march for Florida, as Lonnika Thompson (New Orleans, La.) scored six points thanks to a trey and a three-point play. Trumae Lucas (Greensboro, N.C.) also contributed a 6-foot bank shot during the run that helped the Gators take an 11-5 lead six minutes into the game.
SJU chipped away at UF's lead and got within two points at the 12:15 mark after Shenneika Smith's field goal made the score 13-11.
The Gators then used an 8-1 run sparked by a three-pointer from Jordan Jones (Suwanee, Ga.), a three-point play from Jennifer George (Orlando, Fla.) and an inside jumper from Ndidi Madu (Antioch, Tenn), as UF's lead swelled to nine points, 21-12, with just under 11 minutes to play in the first half.
That's when St. John's offense began to come alive, as the Red Storm mounted a 13-2 spree and took a 27-23 lead with six minutes to play in the half. Jones knocked down her second trey of the period and brought the Gators within one, 27-26.
The teams traded buckets for the next two and half minutes before Sharielle Smith (Bradenton, Fla.) knocked down two free throws and tied the score at 30-all with 18.7 seconds left in the period. Neither team could convert a bucket in the waning seconds and the scored remained deadlocked entering the break.
Eight different Gators scored during the first half, with Jones' eight points leading the way for Florida, which committed 13 turnovers that St. John's was able to convert into 12 points.
UF struggled with its shot during the half, hitting just 35.5 percent (11-31) from the floor, including a 28.6 percent (4-14) mark from the 3-point arc. The Red Storm didn't fair much better, connecting on 34.4 percent (11-32) of their shots, missing all four attempts from beyond the arc.
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