The road to the NCAA tournament got a lot tougher for the Gators on Thursday night in the O’Connell Center.
Missouri made it rain three-pointers in its 81-76 victory.
“It’s just really disappointing to lose on our home floor and to lose exactly in the way that we knew they were going to play,” coach Amanda Butler said. “It doesn’t show a lot of commitment to the practices we put in the past two days.”
The Tigers — one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country, let alone the SEC — sunk 12 shots from beyond the arc.
Six of them came from junior Morgan Eye, the SEC’s top three-point shooter.
A beleaguered Butler couldn’t find a reason why her team let Eye get so many good looks.
“I don’t have a great explanation for why we would give so many attempts to Morgan,” she said.
“She gave them such energy and made such big plays. For the kid that, I think, is the best shooter in our league to get 10 attempts … that shows that we didn’t have the commitment on defense to the things that we practiced.
“I clearly must’ve focused on the wrong things coming into the game.”
Although Missouri was brilliant from three-point range — making 12 of 25 — Florida was in striking distance for most of the game.
Redshirt junior Kayla Lewis posted another double-double, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 boards.
“I just want to do my job for my team,” Lewis said. “If that means scoring 20 points and getting 10 rebounds, so be it. Obviously, that wasn’t enough tonight.”
At halftime, the Gators were leading 34-30, but Missouri’s 8 for 11 effort from distance in the second half ultimately did Florida in.
Eye and freshman Sierra Michaelis accounted for seven of the Tigers’ three-pointers in the half and 10 of their 12 for the game.
“What we did clearly didn’t work,” Butler said. “It’s not a secret that Missouri wants to shoot the three-ball.
“Michaelis shot it really well, and that was a little bit different than what we had seen.”
What may have contributed most to Missouri’s maintained excellence from three-point range was Florida’s lack of communication.
“We just had some communication breakdowns,” Butler said.
“I think communication was not at its best. We didn’t have smooth exchanges when we were trying to switch screens out.”
However, all the talking in the world still might not have been enough to cool off the Tigers.
“I think it was just a combination of a low level of defensive alertness combined with great players doing what they do best,” Butler said.
Thursday’s game was one of Florida’s remaining two home games this season. With two of the Gators’ final three opponents being ranked, Florida has to steal a game to have a shot at getting a ticket to the big dance.
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Kayla Lewis drives toward the net during Florida’s win against Georgia on Jan. 19 in the O’Connell Center.
