Florida women’s basketball senior guard Aliyah Matharu has made all kinds of headlines with highlighted plays for the Gators in this year’s SEC Tournament. In UF’s quarterfinal matchup against the Ole Miss Rebels, she continued to excel on the hardwood, leading the charge for the 11-seeded Gators as they looked to pull off yet another upset in the tournament.
But her night came to a screeching halt with less than five minutes remaining in the game. As she attempted to draw an offensive foul on Ole Miss senior guard Marquesha Davis, Matharu fell to the ground and hit her head on the hardwood floor.
As the Florida senior guard lay immobile on the court for over a minute, the crowd at Bon Secours Wellness Arena fell completely silent. She eventually returned to the bench as the medical staff checked her out, allowing the Rebels to take control.
But the Gators briefly found a second wind in the final minutes of the ballgame and roared right back with a pair of buckets to reclaim a one-point lead. Refusing to let up, Ole Miss swiftly responded with a free throw via Davis and an and-1 putback from Ole Miss senior forward Madison Scott.
As Scott went to the line, Florida’s pep squad suddenly erupted in cheers. Matharu jogged off the bench and checked in at the scorer’s table. She was coming back in.
But not even Matharu’s return could tame the Rebels’ growing momentum. Ole Miss finished the evening on a 13-4 run to seal Florida’s fate and officially knock the Gators out of the tournament.
The Gators’ Cinderella run came to an end in an 84-74 loss to the Rebels, Friday night. In a game featuring all kinds of hits, twists and everything in between, Ole Miss bullied its way to victory in an extremely physical outing from start to finish.
The two teams combined for 53 fouls on the evening, a key stat UF head coach Kelly Rae Finley took note of in the postgame press conference.
“I thought it was an extremely physical game [tonight],” Finley said. “I think that’s not the way the game of basketball is meant to be played, but that’s my own personal opinion.”
Matharu capped off her impressive tournament run with 24 points, three assists and two steals against the Rebels. Senior guard Leilani Correa chipped in with 18 points and nine rebounds off the bench for Florida, while freshman guard Laila Reynolds collected four boards and five blocks on the evening.
Ole Miss senior guard Marquesha Davis had a night to remember, tallying 33 points, six rebounds and four blocks to lead the Rebels to victory. Ole Miss senior forward Madison Scott secured a double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds, while senior guard Kennedy Todd-Williams came through with 18 points, five assists and three blocks of her own.
Florida started out the evening blazing hot from 3-point range, going 3-for-3 from downtown to take an early 9-6 lead. But while the Gators kept firing away from long distance, they could not find any success at the rack, with none of their points in the game’s first seven minutes coming inside the paint.
While they struggled to finish at the rim, the Gators had no trouble drawing fouls early on in the evening, going a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in the first quarter. By the end of the quarter, Florida finally started chipping away in the paint with a pair of lay-ins from senior forward Faith Dut and Correa pushing UF’s lead to 21-15.
In the second quarter, UF’s offensive rhythm all but collapsed. The Gators missed four consecutive shots to start the quarter, allowing the Rebels to tie the game back up at 21-apiece.
Florida eventually reclaimed the lead on a silky-smooth finish from Matharu at the hoop. The two squads proceeded to exchange blows for the rest of the half, with neither team leading by more than four points at any point in the second quarter.
With less than 90 seconds to go in the half, the Rebels took their first lead in over 15 minutes with an and-1 layup on the fast break from Davis. Not to be outdone, senior guard Zippy Broughton and Correa each knocked down a pair of free throws to put the Gators ahead by two points.
In the final seconds of the period, Scott went 1-for-2 at the free throw line to cut Florida’s lead to 37-36. As the two teams returned to the locker rooms for the halftime break, the Gators had managed to hold their own for the first 20 minutes. Now they just needed to find a way to break away for good.
Matharu gave her squad a much-needed spark to open up the second half. After a quick steal-and-score for UF’s first bucket of the half, Matharu drew back-to-back fouls and drilled four consecutive free throws to put the Gators up by five.
As the game went on, Florida’s consistency at the free throw line proved to be their bread and butter. The Gators went 9-for-12 at the charity stripe in the third quarter to keep the Rebels at bay.
“Sometimes, it’s going to be physical, but that’s what we’ve got the weight room for,” Broughton said.
But Ole Miss continued to claw its way back into the game. With less than two minutes to go in the quarter, Todd-Williams knocked down a 3-ball to tie the game back up at 50-apiece.
After Correa and Todd-Williams exchanged layups in the final 90 seconds of the period, the latter guard knocked down a pair of free throws to put the Rebels up by two. In the final seconds of the quarter, Scott slashed through the paint for a buzzer-beater layup to give Ole Miss a 56-54 lead.
Matharu knocked down a pair of free throws in the opening minute of the quarter to even the score back up. Sixty-five seconds later, she drilled another 3 to put the Gators back on top.
Later in the quarter, Broughton pulled up from downtown and converted another 3-ball to make it a two-score ballgame. Davis came right back with a 3 of her own before tying the game once again with a fast break floater.
With less than five minutes to go in the game, Matharu attempted to set her feet and draw a charge on an Ole Miss fast break. But as Davis charged to the basket, Matharu was knocked backward and smacked her head on the hardwood.
She was rendered immobile for quite some time before exiting the game with the help of the Florida staff.
Despite a brief Florida scoring surge and Matharu’s eventual return, the Gators just could not tame the Rebels’ growing momentum. With UF trailing by three as Matharu re-entered the game, Todd-Williams picked up a foul and went 1-for-2 at the line, Scott snagged the offensive rebound and knocked down the putback to put the Rebels up 77-71.
Todd-Williams and Scott subsequently went 5-for-6 at the free throw line in Ole Miss’ next three possessions to all but bury Florida’s remaining hopes for a comeback.
Florida’s season now hangs in the balance as the team awaits the release of the 2024 Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament bracket. If the Gators are selected as one of the 32 teams to take part in the tournament, they will return to the hardwood on March 21 for their first round matchup.
“Florida basketball is on the rise,” Finley said. “We’ve got a really exciting class coming in, and we’ve got a really exciting group of players returning. And it’s because of Zippy, Leilani and Faith that they have a great foundation to build off of.”
But no matter what the future may hold for Florida, Finley made one thing clear in her post-game remarks: she could not be more proud of her squad.
“How do I feel about our team? I love them,” she said. “I love who they are, I love what they stand for, I love how they carry themselves. I think to be a strong, confident woman, how you carry yourself when things don’t go your way is your character.”
Contact Jack Meyer at jmeyer@alligator.org. Follow him on X @jackmeyerUF.
Jack Meyer is a fourth-year journalism major and the Assistant Sports Editor for The Alligator. In his free time, he enjoys reviewing music, spending time with friends, playing video games and going to the gym.
