Trumae Lucas came off a cold bench and provided the spark Florida needed in a 55-52 Southeastern Conference win on the road at Mississippi State on Sunday.
The sophomore, who was scoreless in the first half, scored six points in two minutes, leading the Gators on a 7-2 run against the Bulldogs to give her team a 49-44 lead in the second half with 3:28 remaining.
From there, the Gators (10-8, 3-2 SEC) used the free-throw line to their advantage, scoring their last six points from the charity stripe, including Lucas’ free-throw with 7.6 seconds left to ice the game.
“They didn’t really see me too much in the first half, so I felt like they really didn’t take me as an offensive threat when I came out in the second half,” Lucas said. “We knew they were a great second-half team so we just had to step our game up, and that’s what we did.”
Florida turned the ball over 21 times against the Bulldogs, a step back from its more crisp 12-turnover game against Tennessee on Thursday. But the Gators improved on the boards, bouncing back from being out-rebounded by the Volunteers 46-24 to besting the smaller Bulldogs 46-35 in that category.
“We definitely took our loss against Tennessee out on Mississippi State,” Lucas said, adding that rebounding was a focal point coming into the game.
The Bulldogs (12-6, 3-2 SEC) entered the game with a high-scoring offense that averaged 72 points per game in the SEC and featured four players averaging double figures, including senior guard Alexis Rack.
Rack was second in the SEC in scoring (20 points per game) coming into the contest with UF, and Armelie Lumanu (13.5), Mary Kathryn Govero (11.6) and Tysheka Grimes (11.5) were the other double-figure scorers who were all within the top-23 in the conference in scoring.
Rack was not nearly the offensive threat on Sunday she has been this season. She finished 5 of 19 from the floor with 16 points, but six of them came off back-to-back three-pointers that were too little, too late at the end of the game.
The Bulldogs shot 25 percent in the first half and raised that to 40 percent in the second half, finishing at 33 percent for the game.
The 52 points are the fewest allowed by UF in an SEC game since holding Vanderbilt to 51 on Jan. 24, 2002.
The Gators’ offensive output was driven by Azania Stewart in a first half that produced a combined 14 points in the first ten minutes between the two teams. She scored eight points in the first half on 4-of-7 shooting and finished with 11 to go along with five rebounds.
Florida’s offense in the second half was highlighted by Lucas’ scoring spurt, and Sharielle Smith, who scored 10 of her team-leading 13 points in the second half.
UF coach Amanda Butler was proud of her team’s ability to pull out a win despite shooting just 35 percent from the field and 24 percent from three-point range.
“Toughness is Trumae Lucas coming off the bench after she’d been sitting there for six or seven minutes and coming in making those plays with confidence,” Butler said. “Great toughness across the boards, but great defense … this Mississippi State team is very good, and to hold them to 52 points is amazing.”
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
