Lady Vols hold on to beat Florida
GAINESVILLE, FLA. - Tennessee held on to a lead on the road for a change Thursday night.
While the Lady Vols' grip wasn't vise-like, it was better than before. The result was an 84-75 SEC women's basketball victory over Florida before a crowd of 2,059 at Exactech Arena. The victory ended a two-game conference road losing streak for Tennessee (13-7, 4-3 SEC). In both of the losses, the Lady Vols squandered double-figure advantages.
In this case, Florida whittled a 19-point second-half deficit to six inside the final 20 seconds.
"It's a relief for us," DeShields said. "At the same time, we can be so much better."
That said, DeShields was pretty good, scoring a team-high 27 points. The redshirt junior guard shot 9 for 13 from the floor and 8 for 11 at the free throw line. She also had three steals and three assists. The third assist came via a well-timed pass to Mercedes Russell for a crucial basket with 2 minutes, 15 seconds left.
"She was playing in attack mode the whole night," teammate Jaime Nared said.
Nared, with 16 points, was one of four other Lady Vols scoring in double figures. Russell scored 14 points while guards Jordan Reynolds and Alexa Middleton had 11 apiece.
Reynolds suffered a left ankle injury in the third quarter. Although the senior point guard returned, she was limping after going up for a rebound in the final seconds. UT coach Holly Warlick had no update on Reynolds' condition afterward
Ronni Williams scored 31 points for Florida (10-10, 1-6) before fouling out with 14 seconds left. Haley Lorenzen added 17 points.
Florida hasn't been the same team since leading scorer Eleanna Christinaki opted to leave in early December, rather than serve a half-game suspension for what was termed a "violation of team culture." Still, the Gators were determined, outrebounding UT 42-30 and amassing a 17-5 edge in second-chance points.
"Florida is an aggressive team," DeShields said. "They're not going to go down without a fight."
Thursday's road game began a lot like last Thursday's at Auburn for Tennessee. For starters, the Lady Vols duplicated their 17-point first quarter lead. A DeShields pull-up jumper gave them a 25-8 lead, exactly like before.
The uncanny similarities continued when the Gators utilized some full-court pressure to chop Tennessee's advantage to 27-23 early in the second quarter, forcing the Lady Vols to call a timeout. At that point, Florida had a 9-3 edge in points off turnovers.
After the timeout, though, the Lady Vols flipped the script. The Gators had their own turnover issues for the remainder of the half. Several were unforced. Others were the result of UT's pressure. Reserve guard Middleton secured one steal while lying on her back on the court. She flipped the basketball back over her head to teammate Schaquilla Nunn for a breakaway layup, which restored UT's lead to 43-28.
At halftime, UT's lead was 48-34 and points off turnovers had swung in its favor, 15-11.
Tennessee maintained its double-figure lead throughout the third quarter, leading 57-38 at one point.
"We made some mistakes," Warlick said. "But we stayed pretty tough and pretty solid."