No Jordan Jones, no problem for the Gators.
Without its second-leading scorer and team captain, Florida completed just its season sweep of LSU in program history with a 73-64 victory on the road Thursday night.
Jones, a redshirt senior guard, was ruled out before tip-off due to a concussion suffered during last Sunday’s game against Arkansas.
“Our seniors, collectively, really did a great job,” coach Amanda Butler said. “It’s just really hard to point out one or two people because it really truly was a team effort.”
One senior who stepped up to fill the void left by Jones was center Azania Stewart.
She finished the game with 12 points and 10 rebounds — both team-best marks — recording her first double-double of the season.
Joining Stewart with solid efforts in the post were redshirt senior Ndidi Madu and junior Jennifer George.
Madu scored a season-high 12 points while George chipped in nine, but the duo managed just three combined rebounds.
George’s numbers were lower than her season averages due in part to her early foul trouble.
“Azania was absolutely huge, Ndidi’s play was huge,” Butler said. “George gave us a spurt there for a while when we did go a little bit cold.”
George was one of three Gators — joining senior guards Deana Allen and Lanita Bartley — to record two fouls in the first eight minutes of the game.
Due to a combination of Jones’ injury and early foul trouble for Allen and Bartley, freshman Andrea Vilaro Aragones assumed an increased role.
The Spanish guard provided a boost in the transition game and the press for Florida, setting career-high marks with 24 minutes, five points and a team-best four steals.
“Since we were a little bit shorthanded and got ourselves in some foul trouble, we started to get a little bit tired,” Butler said.
“When one person went out, someone else stepped in and took up the slack.”
Aragones was part of a balanced offensive game from the guard position.
In addition to Aragones’ five, Bartley tied for the team lead with 12 points while Allen and sophomore Jaterra Bonds scored nine each.
For the fourth time this season, every player that saw the floor scored.
“We were doing a pretty good job of moving the ball around and took, for the most part, pretty good shots on the outside,” Butler said. “We talked about not shooting ourselves out of it.”
While Florida managed offensively sans Jones, the team also turned in a solid defensive performance.
The Gators scored 26 points off 22 turnovers by the Tigers.
“We had so much more focus on playing great defense than hitting shots,” Butler said. “We just weren’t concerned about that. We knew we would hit enough (shots).”
Contact Joe Morgan at joemorgan@alligator.org.
