Successful rebounding was ubiquitous in Florida’s 81-60 win at Ole Miss on Sunday.
The Gators cruised to their third consecutive Southeastern Conference victory while splitting the rebounding battle with the Rebels, 42-42.
However, the biggest rebound comes on a broader scale. After dropping three consecutive conference contests, Florida has bounced back with a purpose, winning its next three games.
“We take great pride in making ‘smaller’ better than ‘bigger,’” coach Amanda Butler said.
“We want to win the rebounds, win the battle in the paint. We feel like size can be a factor if we let it, but we can’t let it. We’ve got to make us being smaller be the more important thing.”
The Gators found themselves in an early 7-0 hole fewer than two minutes in. But the Rebels’ run was quickly thwarted thanks to freshman Ronni Williams’ ensuing three-point play.
Williams was very active in the first five minutes of the contest, tallying five points, two boards and two personal fouls in that span. For the game, she scored 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting and notched seven rebounds.
With 13:16 remaining in the first half, the Gators took a 15-14 lead and did not look back. Florida was leading by as much as nine points in the first half thanks to a career game from Antoinette Bannister.
The sophomore guard had the hot hand in the first half, going 3 of 4 from three-point range with 12 points. Bannister scored a career-high 18 points on the afternoon, shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
“Bree’s a shooter at heart,” Butler said. “She’s a ball player. She can pass the ball and make plays, but when the ball felt good off of her hands behind the three-point line, I think that just fueled the whole rest of her ball game.
“She definitely gave us a great shot in the arm.”
Ole Miss stormed back at the end of the first half, but Florida managed to hang on, taking a 33-31 lead into halftime.
“I thought the whole first 20 minutes of basketball was below where we needed to be playing intensity-wise, energy-wise, our level of awareness,” Butler said.
“We weren’t playing poorly, but we weren’t playing as well as we needed to be play.”
The Gators’ counter to the Rebels’ rush at the end of the first half ended up being too much for Ole Miss to handle.
Florida exploded into the second half with a 27-7 run spearheaded by Williams and redshirt junior Kayla Lewis.
Lewis had one of her best games as a Gator on Sunday, scoring a team-high 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting as well as notching a team-high 12 rebounds.
“We’re not necessarily out to win the rebounding battle, but we have to neutralize it,” Butler said.
“We felt like the rebounding battle in the first half was not just being won by them, but it was the biggest impact they were making in the game.”
With rebounds neutralized, it was Florida’s shooting that again propelled it to victory.
In the second half, the Gators shot 18-of-31 from the field. For the game, they shot 8-of-25 from beyond the arc, thanks to Bannister and senior Lily Svete shooting a combined 7-of-14 from three-point range.
Florida is currently in good standing to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament, but a tough road lies ahead. Ranked foes Kentucky, South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M are all waiting for the Gators down the stretch.
“Even though we were able to pull away there at the end,” Butler said, “I think there’s going to be a lot of things that we can watch and learn from this ballgame.”
Follow Gordon Streisand on Twitter @GordonStreisand
Antoinette Bannister drives toward the net during Florida’s 75-67 win against Alabama on Thursday in the O’Connell Center. Bannister scored 18 points — a career high — while shooting better than 50 percent from the field against Ole Miss on Sunday.
