All the talk heading into Florida’s first NCAA Tournament game was that the Gators were poised to bounce back from their crushing 23-point defeat to Kentucky in their first game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Florida was a 5-seed, Albany was a 12-seed, and the Gators hail from the SEC while Albany comes from the America East.
“We’re here to win just as much as they are,” redshirt senior Carlie Needles said in a release on Thursday. “And we expect to win so we’re going to play like that and respect them obviously but come prepared.”
Albany had other ideas.
In a loss that was much closer than the 23-point blowout on March 4 yet incomparably more devastating, Florida dropped the game 61-59 in Syracuse, New York, on Friday afternoon and was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament.
Following the loss, UF coach Amanda Butler didn’t make any excuses.
“It’s just really unfortunate for it to end with this much disappointment,” Butler said in a release. “In these biggest moments, you’ve gotta be yourself exaggerated. And we didn’t do a good job of that.”
The Great Danes led by as many as six in the first quarter before Florida cut it to two heading into the second.
From there, UF appeared to have the upper hand.
Thanks to a 16-0 run by the Gators at the beginning of the quarter, they headed into the locker room owning a 14-point advantage. But it wouldn’t last.
“I don’t think we relaxed. I don’t think there was anything about us coming out of that locker room that we felt like this was in the bag,” Butler said. “It was a matter of really just poor execution on both ends of the floor.”
Albany trimmed the deficit to nine after the third quarter, but hadn’t done so until the quarter’s seven-minute mark. It looked like Florida might be able to maintain its lead.
Things also looked good for Florida when, clinging to a six-point lead, one of Albany’s best in Shereesha Richards fouled out with 6:18 to play. But even then, Albany found a way to not only continue but expand on its run.
“When their best player fouls out, they’re gonna step up” junior forward Ronni Williams, who was Florida’s second leading scorer on the day (10) behind freshman Eleanna Christinaki (11), said. “And that’s what they did.”
Once Richards was gone, Florida went into meltdown mode.
Butler credited her team’s collapse — during which Albany went on a 15-2 run to close out the game — to complacency and hesitation.
“It wasn’t a wave of energy — it was five little pools of energy,” she said. “And it wasn’t enough.”
In part, the game came down to the stage. Albany had more fans, more experience and, according to UF guards coach Bill Ferrara, “just wanted it more.”
“We just didn’t play smart. We didn’t play the way that Florida plays,” junior guard Simone Westbrook said. “We didn’t have an answer, and they exploited that.”
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
Contact Ethan Bauer at ebauer@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @ebaueri.
Florida guard Simone Westbrook (20) keeps the ball in bounds in front of Florida head coach Amanda Butler during a first half of a first-round women's college basketball game against Albany in the NCAA Tournament on Friday, March 18, 2016, in Syracuse, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
