On Thursday night in the O’Connell Center, Florida cruised to victory in its first conference game of the season, beating Mississippi State 82-72.
Both the Gators and the Bulldogs entered Thursday with six-game winning streaks.
“I’m really proud of the way that we played,” coach Amanda Butler said. “I liked the start to both halves, and that is very important to our team. For the most part we played with a lot of composure. I am sure there are a lot of things that we will discover when we go back and watch the film that we should have done a little cleaner or a little better with a higher level of intensity, but overall, we beat a very good team tonight. Winning the rebounding battle, I am really proud of that. Like I said, we showed a great deal of composure, which was one of our game goals.”
Redshirt sophomore Cassie Peoples led the game in scoring with 23 points, while sophomore January Miller notched a double-double with ten boards and 12 points.
Miller had the tough task of guarding Mississippi State’s Martha Alwal, who earned a spot on the Second Team Preseason All-Southeastern Conference team. On the night, Alwal was contained to just five rebounds and six points.
“I thought that January showed tremendous fight in the way that she rebounded. We really needed that. When you have a player like (Alwal) on the floor, you can’t just expect the post players to handle their business. That is a tough matchup. You’ve got to get help from somewhere. I thought that Jan really shouldered a lot of that rebounding burden tonight. She did it in a very aggressive January way. She just went and got the ball. I think that all and all we’ve got to have more consistency in how we box out. But no question, she gave us a rebounding spark.”
The Gators have now won seven consecutive games for the first time since the 2008-2009 season. Florida hopes its momentum carries them on Sunday against No. 6 Kentucky, its toughest challenge of the season so far.
“It is huge,” Butler said. “That is what I said to the team. I think the last three or four minutes of the game didn’t feel like we wanted it to because we kept putting them on the free throw line and prolonging the game. I said guys, ‘we need to get really excited. It is hard to win games in this league.’ I don’t care what the opponents name is on their jersey or where you are playing. You’ve got to take great pride whenever you beat another SEC opponent. It is fantastic momentum for us. We need to springboard and use that momentum because we have a great challenge on Sunday and a great opportunity ahead of us.”
Follow Gordon Streisand on Twitter @GordonStreisand
