Things couldn’t have been much worse for Alabama, which was in the basement of the Southeastern Conference, heading into its game against Florida on Thursday.
The Crimson Tide had zero conference wins and lost their leading scorer, Varisia Raffington, to injury Sunday.
But Tierney Jenkins picked up the slack in the Tide’s 82-58 win. She finished with 28 points, 12 rebounds and five steals to lead Alabama (9-10, 1-5 SEC) to its first conference win.
It’s the most points Florida has allowed an individual player to score this season.
“Alabama was just more ready to play today,” coach Amanda Butler said. “Tierney Jenkins kicked our butts from one end of the court to the other — first half, second half — played like a big-time player.”
The Gators (10-9, 3-3 SEC) looked nothing like they did in their previous three SEC games, playing poor defense (allowed 58 percent from the floor) and shooting the ball terribly.
Florida shot 31 percent (22 of 70) and had an even more dismal outing from beyond the arc, going 4 of 18 (22 percent).
Alabama took advantage of UF’s mistakes with Jenkins leading the charge. She had 17 of her team’s 38 first-half points and added seven rebounds in the opening period.
UF center Azania Stewart scored her team’s first four points before three-straight Florida turnovers resulted in six Alabama points.
The Crimson Tide capitalized by scoring 12 points off Florida’s 10 turnovers in the first half. The Gators couldn’t turn defense into offense, managing five points off the Tide’s nine first-half turnovers.
UF finished with 24 turnovers.
“The majority of the things that happened were our fault,” Sharielle Smith said. “Between turnovers, just silly turnovers that we shouldn’t have had, and rebounding — we weren’t rebounding like we usually do, it was definitely self-inflicted.”
The Gators’ defensive effort lagged in the first half when the Tide shot 52 percent from the field and outrebounded UF 21-16.
In the second half, the Gators still couldn’t find the basket and continued to turn the ball over, while Alabama turned a 12-point halftime lead into a 24-point triumph.
Between the 7:08 mark in the first half, when Alabama led 22-20, and 12:04 in the second half, Florida was outscored 28-10.
The Tide’s hot shooting — 65 percent in the second half — kept burning UF and quelled any comeback attempts.
Ericka Russell (18 points) and Celiscia Farmer ( 19) were the other focal points for Alabama’s offense. No Gator finished in double digits, while Smith and Stewart finished with nine each.
The Gators return home Sunday to host South Carolina (10-8, 3-3) in the O’Connell Center at 1 p.m. It’ll be a bittersweet moment for Jordan Jones, who transferred from USC after her freshman year and was the team’s leading scorer.
“Alabama just brought it tonight and Florida did not,” Butler said. “We gotta bounce back. South Carolina is maybe playing the best of anyone in our league right now.”
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
