#5 South Carolina crushes Florida 81-62

FINAL: SOUTH CAROLINA 81, FLORIDA 62

GAINESVILLE, FL-  The Florida Gators fell to the #5 South Carolina Lady Gamecocks on Sunday by an 81-62 margin.  Florida only trailed by two after a back and forth first quarter, but South Carolina limited the Gators to only 5 second quarter points.  Florida didn’t score in the second quarter until there was just over four minutes left.  South Carolina scored 26 points in that second quarter, and cruised the rest of the way to the victory.  For the game, the Gators were forced into 22 turnovers and only made 36.5% of their field goals.  Florida missed far too many easy shots and layups to stay competitive with South Carolina.

An interesting situation occurred towards the end of the game as Florida was playing with a short bench, having only eight players dressed.  Florida had four players with four fouls for much of the second half.  We actually looked up the rule to see what would happen if Florida had four players foul out and only three subs.  It turns out that the last player to foul out (or fourth in this case) would remain in the game, and each foul thereafter would result in a technical.

Florida was led by freshman Delicia Washington with 18 points and 7 rebounds.  Haley Lorenzen added 15 points and 5 rebounds.  Ronni Williams just couldn’t seem to make her shots fall as she finished with 6 points on 2-11 shooting.  Williams, Tyshara Fleming, Lorenzen, and Washington all had four fouls for much of the second half.  Williams and Fleming fouled out.

A’Ja Wilson led the Gamecocks with 23 points and 13 rebounds, while Allisha Gray added 18 points.  Alaina Coates chipped in 14 points and 13 rebounds.  South Carolina improves to 13-1 on the season and 3-0 in SEC play.

Florida falls to 9-7 and 0-3 in the SEC.  Florida has dropped four of their last seven games.  Florida is 0-3 in SEC play for the first time since 2006-07.

TEAM STATS:

WHAT’S NEXT:

FLORIDA VS #4 MISSISSIPPI STATE

JANUARY 12, 2017 at 9:00 PM

HUMPHREY COLISEUM