With leading scorer Cassie Peoples sitting out the first half due to a violation of team rules, the Florida women’s basketball team needed the support of its bench players to pick up the slack in the redshirt junior’s absence.
Despite another slow start, the Gators closed out the first half on a strong note, and the team appeared prepared to overtake the Badgers in the second half.
But Florida (5-4) came out flat, letting the Badgers secure a double digit lead, a lead Wisconsin (3-6) wouldn’t surrender for the rest of the game as the Badgers went on to beat the Gators 51-48 in the O’Connell Center.
January Miller led Florida with 12 points, hitting a pair of three-pointers in the first half and the go-ahead basket that gave the Gators the lead at halftime.
“I wasn’t getting as many opportunities in the paint, so I knew jump shots and three’s would be important,” Miller said.
After sagging off Florida for much of the first half, Wisconsin turned up the defensive intensity in the final going, flustering the Gators. Florida appeared to have an answer for Wisconsin’s size down low in the first half, but the Badgers adjusted and outscored the Gators in the paint in the second half to hand Florida its third straight loss. Coach Amanda Butler was proud of the team’s ability to overcome a slow start, but says the struggles the team faced in the second half must be corrected or the team will continue to lose games.
“They were a little saggy in the first half, and second half they got a little more aggressive with us, because we made them feel pretty good,” Butler said. “We bolstered their confidence in how they should guard us.”
Losing its first game at home, Florida shot the ball poorly from the beginning and appeared to lack the sense of urgency that Butler has emphasized the Gators need to correct as the team heads into tougher competition. Wisconsin, coming off a win against Marquette, was able to force the Gators into bad shots, with guards Carlie Needles and Peoples combining to shoot 0-for-8 from the field.
The Gators shot 20 percent from the field in the second half, with seemingly every shot contested by the longer Wisconsin defenders. Needles has had a rough going in the team’s recent contests, and tonight was no exception.
“My team knows that other defenders know that I’m a shooter, so they know to move and be open going to the basket,” Needles said. “Once I get the shots, it’s up to me.”
“If one things not going your way you have to find another way (to score),” Needles said.
The Gators were able to correct the turnover problems that plagued the team in its recent road losses to Savannah State and Florida State, turning the ball over just 11 times compared to Wisconsin’s 17. Yet Florida couldn’t make the most of its possessions, finding itself defeated despite taking 15 more shots than the Badgers.
“Our biggest disappointment the second half was our transition defense,” Butler said. “That’s how they set the tone, and we weren’t able to regain that momentum.”
Follow Graham Hall on Twitter @Graham311
January Miller drives the ball to the net during Florida’s 87-69 win against Auburn on Jan. 26 in the O’Connell Center. Miller scored only five points while turning the ball over three times in UF’s loss to UGA on Sunday.
