Bama falls to Florida, 80-72

While Alabama overcame a 21-point deficit, a 15-3 run by Florida during the final 6:17 gave the Crimson Tide an 80-72 loss in women’s basketball action Thursday at the O’Connell Center.
Alabama now stands at 13-6 overall and 2-4 in Southeastern Conference play, while the win lifts No. 22/23 Florida to 16-3 overall and 4-2 in league play.
“You do everything you can to get a basket,” Alabama head coach Kristy Curry said in a news release. “You’ve just got to make shots. I thought they were a lot tougher and better conditioned down the stretch. Everybody is going to talk about how we competed and played hard, but I am tired of that. At the end of the day, they’ve got to find ways to make plays and win games, and we are not getting that from certain spots. We’ve got to continue to go to our bench and come back, and whoever is playing well is who we are going to go with.”
Despite the loss, sophomore Meoshonti Knight, a Central Catholic High alum, scored a career-high 23 points, while freshman Shaquera Wade chipped in a career-best 13 points. Joining the two in double figures for the Tide were sophomores Hannah Cook with 16 and Quanetria Bolton with 11.
Knight added three rebounds, two assists and six steals.
She won the opening tip for Alabama, which gave Bolton an opportunity to score the first bucket of the game.
From there, however, Florida pulled ahead thanks to nine unanswered points during the next five minutes.
The Gators would extend their lead to double digits at the end of the first and lead by 11, 21-10, following the first quarter.
The Tide scored eight of the first 10 points of the second to cut the Florida lead to five, but again, the Gators would string together a run to lead by double digits. The lead reached 21 late in the quarter.
Alabama scored the half’s final six points to give Florida a 41-36 advantage at halftime.
The third quarter was all Crimson Tide as Alabama outscored the Gators, 30-15, during the 10-minute span.
The Tide took its first lead since the opening possession at the 2:31 mark when Bolton converted the old fashioned three-point play to put Alabama in front, 57-56. The game would stand tied at 61, heading into the final quarter.
Cook drained a three-pointer 24 seconds into the fourth to give Alabama the lead back, which it would hold until Florida freshman Eleanna Christianaki connected on a pair of free throws to put the Gators in front, 70-69, with 4:36 to go. Florida scored 10 of the next 13 points to hold on to the win.
“We tried to go in at halftime and coach and explain to them that we were getting outrebounded and try to make some adjustments, but at the end of the day it is their energy and effort,” Curry said. “I don’t think at that point it is about coaching. It is more about character. We changed our starting lineup and came back out the second half and obviously got off to a better start in the third quarter than we did to begin the game.”
For the game, Alabama shot 47.3 percent (26-55), while Florida finished 54.2 percent (32-59) from the floor. The Gators outrebounded the Tide, 40-25, and Alabama connected on only 16 of its 31 attempts from the free throw line.
Next up, the Tide heads to Nashville, Tennessee, for a rematch with Vanderbilt. The game is slated to tip at 6 p.m.