The Gators stopped the Crimson Tide from extending its winning streak to three while making threes of their own.
For the second consecutive game, Florida had a strong showing from the field, shooting 46.3 percent on field goals and 45 percent from three-point range to defeat Alabama 75-67 win on Thursday night in the O’Connell Center.
“This is who we are,” coach Amanda Butler said. “This is why we continue to shoot the way that we have and encouraged the shots that we have from our players that need to be taking those.”
Redshirt senior Lily Svete had a whale of a game, scoring 14 points — one point shy of tying her career high — and notching a career-high seven rebounds.
Her numbers have improved dramatically since being removed from a starting role.
“I think Lily’s been shooting the ball better since she’s been coming off the bench and having a chance to catch her breath, watch the flow of the game and insert herself in a very impactful way,” Butler said.
Added Svete: “To start conference play, I went through a scoring drought. I continued to work hard and run the offense, do what I’m supposed to do; go to my spots and just let the game come to me.”
Svete’s seven boards on Thursday tied a team high. Although Svete had an uncharacteristic night on the boards, Florida still lost the rebounding battle 40-34.
“I take a lot of pride in boxing out, and I’m happy that I got seven rebounds, but I probably gave up more rebounds than I ever have in a game,” Svete said. “It’s kind of bittersweet.”
Nine of Svete’s 14 points came from beyond the arc, but the most impressive stat of the night for the senior was that she converted her first three-point foul play of her career after draining the free throw after a layup with 9:20 remaining.
“Lily regularly practices that move,” Butler joked.
“The part that she practices in practice is yelling, ‘And one!’”
Carlie Needles also had a hot hand against Alabama. The redshirt sophomore scored a team-high 16 points, sinking five threes in the process.
“I got to give the credit to my teammates,” Needles said. “I can’t shoot those without getting the ball. I felt like we did really well at extra passes. Skip passes were really there for us. We worked on corner threes a lot, and that’s where a lot of the shots came from.”
There were similarities both Auburn and Alabama shared that were conducive to Florida’s strong offensive performances in both games.
“Both teams play a lot of zone,” Butler said. “Their zones are very different, though. Auburn mixes up their zones a lot, and Alabama was pretty much more of a straightforward, 2-3 team. It has allowed us to get in a little bit of a groove in our preparation of doing a lot of zone looks, getting up a lot of zone shots. It kind of generates expectations of where we think we’re going to be open.”
With the Crimson Tide now receding back to Tuscaloosa, Ala., Butler and her Gators hope to see more zone defense and keep the wave rolling into Oxford, Miss.
“We knew we were going to have to play with no gaps in our toughness to do what we needed to do tonight,” Butler said.
“It’s going to be a very similar battle, I believe, at Ole Miss.”
Follow Gordon Streisand on Twitter @GordonStreisand
Lily Svete drives toward the net during Florida’s 75-67 win against Alabama on Thursday in the O’Connell Center. Svete scored 14 points against the Crimson Tide.
