LEXINGTON, Ky. – Four Gators netted a double-figure scoring effort paced by freshman Delicia Washington's 14 points but it wasn't enough as Florida dropped a 67-48 decision to Kentucky at Memorial Coliseum on Sunday afternoon in front of crowd of 6,604.

Kentucky used a handful of mini runs and Florida was able to counter most of them and get back within two points. The Gators has just finished whittling a 10-point deficit down to two, 31-29, early in the second half.
 
That's when the Wildcats used a 15-4 run and took a 47-33 lead with 2:10 remaining in the third quarter.
 
The teams traded buckets for the next several minutes into the fourth quarter and Florida wouldn't counter, as the Wildcats led by as many as 22 in the final frame in route to their fourth straight win.
 
In what has usually been a back and forth affair between the two teams, there were only two tied scores in Sunday's game and Florida never managed to take a lead. The previous six meetings between Florida and Kentucky featured a combined 48 lead changes and 35 tied scores
 
Updated Records

• Florida: 13-14, 4-10 SEC
• Kentucky: 19-8, 10-4 SEC

 
Double-Digit Gators

• Freshman Delicia Washington: 14 points; 16th double-figure scoring game
• Senior Ronni Williams: 12 points; 23rd double-figure scoring game this year and 73^rd of career
• Freshman Sydney Morang: 10 points; third double-figure scoring game – all have come in SEC games
• Senior Tyshara Fleming: 10 points, team-high eight rebounds; 10th double-figure scoring game this year, 14th of career

 
Top Scoring Wildcat

• Evelyn Akhator led three Wildcats in double-figure scoring with 19 points and a game-high nine rebounds.

 
Numbers of Note

• Ronni Williams, who has 1,398 career points, moved into a tied for 14th place on UF's all-time scoring chart with Rhvonja Smith (1987-91)
• Dyandria Anderson topped the career 400-point mark
• Kentucky scored 24 points off of 23 Gator turnovers
• Kentucky held the 30-28 rebounding advantage, with the Wildcats converting 13 offensive rebounds into 25 points, while Florida managed just five points off of 11 offensive boards.
• This was Florida's 19th road game of the season.

 
Florida vs. Kentucky: The Updated Series

• 54-Game Series: UF trails 25-29 (UF Home: 13-9; Away: 9-15; Neutral: 3-5)
• Trend: Ten of the last 12 games have been decided by 10 points or less

 
Two and Counting

• Florida has just two regular-season games remaining before the SEC Tournament.
• Florida's remaining schedule includes one home game (Georgia on Feb. 28) and one on the road (Tennessee on Feb. 23).

 
Gripping Gators

• Over the previous three-plus seasons, the team has played a combined 57 games decided by 10 points or less, with a 30-27 record.
• In 2016-17, the Gators are 4-8 in games decided 10 points or less (3-6 SEC).

 
Quick Summary

• This was Florida's 19th road game of the season.
• The Gators have just two games remaining before the SEC Tournament.

Florida Head Coach Amanda Butler
Opening statement…
"It was a really tough game. I felt like it was ugly in a lot of ways. We obviously needed to play better than we did. We turned the ball over too much and I think that led to some easy scores for them. We didn't play with as much half-court composure on offense than them, but you have to give Kentucky credit for getting those steals and causing those turnovers and converting those points. I thought those 3s that they hit were really timely. It really brought energy for them and we have to play with a lot more fight with the situation that that we're in right now. We can't have patches of fight. That has kind of been our trademark. We need to go 40 minutes of all-out effort and we're learning how to do that. Our younger players are learning how to do that, play with adversity."
 
On the difference in the third quarter…
"We turned the ball over a little too much. I don't have a great answer, a creative answer or coaching answer. We turned the ball over too much. We forced a lot of things. We had a lot of unforced turnovers as well because we were trying so hard to get paint touches and those high percentage shots that we like to take and too many possessions where we flat threw it out of bounds."
 
On Kentucky outscoring them 25-5 down the stretch being part of that fight she wants…
"It's one of those areas where we don't look for excuses or anything. One of those areas where we really miss Haley Lorenzen. We're one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the league but one of our best offensive rebounders wasn't available tonight and our guards needed to pick up the slack more and that didn't happen. That, again, is where we are inexperienced and that we have to learn. Nobody is going to feel sorry for you when you have a player out or unexpected injuries. You have got to try to fill that hole with extra effort, extra fight and two or three percent of extra energy, whatever you need to do to contribute and we didn't do that. We left some of those holes open."


 Links of Note

• VIDEO: Coach Amanda Butler's Postgame Press Conference – http://youtu.be/aVr5DDQ5Idw
• Final Box: http://floridagators.com/documents/2017/2/19/uk_uf_box_021917.pdf
• Highlightss: http://floridagators.com/watch/default.aspx?Archive=5390

What's Next for the Gators

• Who: Florida at Tennessee (17-10, 8-6 SEC) – UT defeated Arkansas 59-46 on Sunday
• Where: Thompson-Boling Arena (21,678) * Knoxville, Tenn.
• When: Thu., February 23 * 7 p.m. ET

 
Gator Pronunciations for this Release:

• TYSHARA Fleming: tie-SHEER-uh
• Sydney MORANG: mur-RANG (like meringue pie)
• DELICIA Washington: duh-LEE-shuh

 
FOLLOW THE GATORS
SOCIAL: Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram
JOIN THE CONVERSATION: #GoGators