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Final: Florida 70, Mercer 51

The Florida women improved to 7-3 on the season with a 70-51 defeat of Mercer on Tuesday.

Junior point guard Kiara Smith scored a career high 21 points and tied a season high by grabbing ten rebounds. Meanwhile, freshman Lavender Briggs recorded her fourth double-double with ten points and eleven boards.

How it happened

Despite turning the ball over eight times in the opening quarter of play, the Gators put up 24 points. They shot 10-18 in the first quarter and knocked down 4-8 from distance.

Florida stretched its lead to 44-26 by half thanks to nine points from Kristina Moore.

The Gators scored the first six points of the second half to make it 50-26. From there, Florida went into cruise control to take the dominant victory.

Guard Ariel Johnson added ten points while coming off the bench and freshman Faith Dut contributed a career high of five points in a reserve role.

Nina Rickards made her first career start, logging 24 minutes of action.

Game Stats:

• FG% – 37
• 3FG% – 32
• FT% – 79
• Reb+/- – +21
• Assists – 10
• TO- 13
• Bench Points – 21

What’s Next:

Florida will head to the West Palm Beach Invitational where they will face Xavier (1-8) and Wake Forest (5-4).

The contest with Xavier is scheduled for December 20 at 4:45 PM.