Revenge never tasted so sweet.
The Gators shocked the 49ers on a last-second layup to win 67-65 in the Halton Arena on Wednesday night, redeeming a season-ending loss to Charlotte in the WNIT in 2010-11.
With the victory, Florida advances to the Elite Eight of the WNIT for the first time under coach Amanda Butler.
“Obviously very, very proud of our toughness and our fight and resilience,” Butler said. “We did not play our best ball game, which had everything to do with the way Charlotte played. Got to give them a lot of credit.”
Trailing 65-64 with 20 seconds remaining in the second half, junior guard Jaterra Bonds earned her first two free throws of the contest. After making the first, Bonds missed an opportunity to give the Gators the lead on her second try.
But senior Jennifer George grabbed the rebound to give the Gators a chance to avoid overtime — UF’s 81-77 loss to Charlotte two seasons ago came in overtime — with one final possession.
Bonds took full advantage, working into the lane and scoring a layup with 3 seconds remaining.
“Jaterra lives for those situations; she is a champion,” Butler said.
“When Jennifer made a champion’s play and got that offensive rebound and we had the last possession, I knew if Jaterra was going to have anything to do with it, this game was not going to go into overtime.”
Bonds remembered the pain from when Florida fell to Charlotte two years ago during her freshman season. She scored a game-high 23 points in the losing effort.
Bonds came through again on Wednesday night. She led the Gators with 15 points on 7-of-15 shooting while adding four assists, three rebounds and two steals.
“As soon as I found out that we played Charlotte, I immediately thought about our 17-point lead (in the 2010-11 matchup), and they came back and beat us in overtime,” Bonds said. “It was in the back of my mind throughout the whole game. I didn’t want that to happen again.”
Florida led for most of the first half, but Charlotte battled back midway through the second.
George, who averaged just 4.5 points in WNIT wins against Florida International and Winthrop, played her best 20 minutes of basketball prior to halftime.
The senior forward scored 10 of her 14 points as the Gators took a 34-28 lead into the break.
George was quiet for much of the second half before corralling Bonds’ missed free throw to set up Florida’s final possession.
“This whole year, we have been through a lot,” George said. “That put us in the position where we are now. We’ve been battle-tested. … We’re not expecting defeat right now.”
Added Butler: “I really liked our maturity down the stretch. Even though our decision-making wasn’t as good as it should have been, it just seemed like we kept coming back.”
Florida will face James Madison in the Elite Eight on Saturday at 4 p.m. Butler knows her team will need to improve to earn another victory.
“We’ve got to play a much better ball game up there if we expect to continue to advance,” she said.
Contact Phil Heilman at pheilman@alligator.org.
Coach Amanda Butler watches during Florida’s 87-54 victory against Alabama on Feb. 3 in the O’Connell Center. UF advanced to the WNIT Elite Eight after defeating Charlotte, the school Butler left to take over as the Gators’ coach in 2007.
