Emanuely de Oliveira’s career best performance boosts third consecutive Florida win
After a stout defensive effort, the Florida Gators conquered rivals Florida State, 69-55 to earn three wins in a row during a four-game home stance.
The victory is the first over Florida State since the meeting in 2015 and the all-time series moves to a 43-35 UF advantage.
UF junior guard Lavender Briggs usually leads the scorecard for her team but Sunday was the Emanuely de Oliveria show. The senior churned out a career-best performance with 16 points on top of six rebounds to charge the Gators to victory.
UF interim coach Kelly Rae Finley praised Manu’s performance during the post-game.
“Manu made some big-time plays for us today and that’s something that she’s consistently done for us,” Finley said. “She just has a steadiness and composure to her game and her basketball IQ is very high. We thought that that would be a mismatch and that four-position both her and Jordan could expose, and it was nice to see them have some success tonight on the offensive end.”
Teammate Kiki Smith followed up her near-triple double performance from Friday with 11 points, three assists and four rebounds.
Although FSU won the rebound battle and Florida had a hard time shooting outside the paint, the UF defense created 23 turnovers, including 10 steals, to cripple the Seminoles. Meanwhile, the Gators recorded a season-low seven turnovers on the offensive side of the court to maintain possession and a lead.
Up next for Florida is an early-Tuesday matchup at 1 p.m. in Gainesville, FL against Murray State who is fresh off a 75-66 road loss to Samford.