It’s a fair statement to say the Gators women’s basketball team has been dealt a heaping scoop of adversity this season.
Arguably the only adversity the team predicted is how daunting the finish line would be.
Despite how tough the final month of the season has been – a month that sees Florida play four of its final seven games against Top 25 ranked teams – coach Amanda Butler said it’s not something that the team dreads.
“It’s fun – grueling is a great word, no question it’s difficult, it’s challenging – but it’s fun,” Butler said. “I mean this is why you play in this league. You don’t dread it, you’re not worried about it. You’re excited for it.”
While losing is never exciting, the Gators felt the most alive after using a game-changing 13-0 run to defeat their first ranked opponent of the season, the then-No. 24 Georgia Bulldogs on the road.
Butler said that UF finally began to execute some of the lessons she’s emphasized in practice – namely, running in transition on both sides of the court.
“We just played with a greater level of consistency on both ends of the floor,” Butler said.
“One of the things we try and do a lot of times in practice, especially when we’re ending a drill, is make sure we get a stop and a score to end the drill and move on to our next thing. And that’s what we were able to do, was to string together three consecutive possessions of a score and a stop.”
Florida trailed for most of the game, and looked defeated before finally converting stops and capitalizing on the momentum.
For a team that’s been run out of the gym in several contests this season, the come-from-behind win proved that victories can be had if UF avoids sloppy play and utilizes the game plan.
But the Gators couldn’t keep the momentum going in its next game, a 75-62 loss to No. 13 Mississippi State on Sunday.
UF started hot, opening the game on a 8-0 run, but Mississippi State soon turned it around and coasted to victory.
Florida’s transition was limited, and the team failed to score on layups on multiple opportunities, resulting in wasted possessions.
“We were able to get some things against Mississippi State because we knew they were going to press us, we knew that they were going to be real aggressive to the boards,” Butler said.
“January (Miller) just did a fantastic job of creating some of those opportunities and her teammates did a good job of finding her. And the biggest thing was she converted. We had a lot of looks in the paint (Sunday) night we just couldn’t convert.”
Regardless of a team’s ranking, Butler said that every victory over a Southeastern Conference opponent is critical to the development and growth of the team.
The Gators just need to focus on playing good basketball, and the wins will come.
“We’re not like ‘Oh no, we’ve got all these big, bad teams’. Every team in the SEC is big and bad,” Butler said. “You’ve got to be ready to play your best basketball. And I think our team is capable right now.”
Follow Graham Hall on Twitter @Graham311
Kayla Lewis prepares to shoot during Florida’s 64-56 loss to Tennessee on Feb. 8 in the O’Connell Center. Lewis is the lone senior on the Gators’ roster this season.
