GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida women's basketball used a third-quarter offensive outburst to down USC Upstate, 76-54, on Friday evening in Exactech Arena.
Lavender Briggs had one of her best games of the year to lead the Gators (4-2, 0-0 SEC), scoring 16 points to go along with five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Alberte Rimdal and Emanuely de Oliveira also crossed the double-digit threshold with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
De Oliveira led the Florida rebounding effort, pulling down six while Nina Rickards and Briggs each added five. Florida's effort on the glass led to a 35-28 advantage, including a 15-6 lead in second chance points.
Defensively, the Spartans (2-2, 0-0 Big South) were uncomfortable with the Gators' pressure, turning the ball over 23 times, leading to 14 steals for the home squad. Led by a season-high five steals from Zippy Broughton, the Orange & Blue ended the game with a 32-4 advantage in points off of turnovers.
Despite the final score, USC Upstate pushed the Gators during the first half, trailing just 28-26 at halftime. That changed quickly. The Gators opened the third quarter on a 13-0 run to quickly extend their lead to 41-26. Offensively, Florida finished a blistering 10-of-12 (83.3%) from the field and 2-of-2 from deep for the quarter.
The Gators were just as strong defensively, recording six steals on seven turnovers while holding the opposition to zero threes. USC Upstate ended the quarter 5-of-11 from the floor, but were outscored 26-12 during the third 10 minutes.
Small spurts in the final frame helped Florida put the game away, including an 8-0 run by freshmen Alberte Rimdal and Jeriah Warren where Warren scored five of her seven points to give UF a 70-45 advantage with 4:26 remaining. While that is where the lead would peak, Florida continued to knock down their free throws late, ending a season-best 12-of-13 (92.3%) from the line, for the 76-54 win.
Florida women's basketball will now turn their attention to the San Juan Shootout in San Juan, Puerto Rico where they will face-off with Saint Louis on Friday, Nov. 26 and George Washington on Saturday, Nov. 27.
Quoteables
Head Coach Kelly Rae Finley
On halftime adjustments…
"Our team has great ownership, right, and great team leadership from veterans. So, I wish that was something I could take credit for but I will not do that. When they put their minds together and they really focus, they know what adjustments need to be made and they know how to motivate each other and that's just what happened at half time."
On Lavender Briggs' performance…
"I felt like Lav is getting back to being closer and closer to herself, right. So, it's fun to see her perform at that level on the court, she's obviously an elite player who we rely a lot on and you know one of the things that she's grown the most is her leadership and communication on the court and I think that that was very apparent tonight as well as her play obviously."
On Jeriah Warren's energy…
"Yeah, Jeriah's long and athletic. I'm glad that you see the same things that we do. She's talented in so many ways, she can play multiple positions for us. Tonight, you saw her sometimes playing the four and in high school she found herself playing the one. So, over her years here you're going to see her versatility and you're right on with the energy that she brings to both ends of the floor, how active she is, just athletic and she does, she has a knack for the ball and you know she shoots the three. She's a three-level scorer and she's obviously disruptive on defense as well."
Junior Guard Lavender Briggs
On halftime adjustments…
"I think we just realized who we are as a team. We hold ourselves to a very high standard and every time we step onto the court, we want to meet that standard and get better as a team, so we thought that we weren't playing to the best of our ability, and we all came together as a team and realized what we wanted to improve on, and we did that."
On pulling away in the third quarter…
" I think after we start playing and we can talk about what we need to improve on as a team then it helps us to calm down and we can really lock in and focus on what we need to be doing to play better as a team overall, which is we want to start out the game locked in and I think that is something we are working on and we strive to do every game but, recently we haven't been doing that. But that's what's making us pretty locked in in the third and fourth quarter."
On the freshman class…
"I think all of the freshmen come on the court and they work hard whenever they step on the court. The two twins, they work very hard down low to get offensive and defensive rebounds and stops. They are very physical, and they provide energy on the bench as well. Alberte, she comes in an gives Kiki a breather and she provides a spark off the bench, which is something very good when we are at out lows, and she's always ready to knock down shots. And Jeriah, like I said, she comes off the bench and she's always ready to crash the board and provide energy wherever we need it and she's always doing what's asked of her so they all work very hard and we're proud of them."
Postgame Bites
- The 83.3% shooting is the best offensive performance by Florida in a quarter (min. 10 attempts) since transitioning to quarters during the 2015-16 season. The Gators have shot 80% once before with at least 10 attempts, finishing 8-of-10 in the fourth quarter against Chattanooga on Nov. 14, 2016.
- Florida's third quarter defense continues to impress, holding opponents to just 30-of-96 from the field during the period for 31.3%.
- With 16 points on Monday, Lavender Briggs is just 140 points away from becoming the 27th member of the 1,000-point club at Florida.
- Jeriah Warren's seven points are a career-high for the freshman.
- Faith Dut tied a career-best with three blocks on the evening.
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