Nothing seemed to go Florida’s way Thursday night as No. 5 Tennessee came into Gainesville and throttled the Gators, leaving the O’Connell Center with an 83-40 victory that was never in doubt.
The Lady Volunteers’ (16-2, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) size, speed and experience overwhelmed the Gators from the opening tip to the final buzzer.
“You have to give Tennessee credit for setting the tone right from the beginning,” coach Amanda Butler said. “We never adjusted and never really responded with the toughness that I know this team possesses.”
UT’s Kelley Cain opened the scoring with a layup inside, and Jaterra Bonds answered with a three on the other end to give the Gators a 3-2 advantage moments into the game.
But that would be the last time Florida held the lead.
Butler harps constantly about setting the tone in the first few minutes of the game, but after four minutes the Gators trailed 14-5 and had missed five of their first seven looks from the field.
The Gators (12-6, 2-2 SEC) failed to capitalize on some good opportunities, which allowed Tennessee to score in transition as the game quickly got out of hand.
“We knew they wanted to run up our backs and push tempo,” Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. “I thought we did a good job of slowing them down.”
Florida could only muster 15 points in the first 20 minutes and trailed by 32 at half. The Gators had more turnovers (eight) than field goals (six) and were shooting just 20 percent (6 for 30) at the break.
Tennessee’s Angie Bjorklund, who provided the game-winning dagger with 2.3 seconds left in last season’s meeting in Gainesville, again torched the Gators. Dropping all 16 of her points in the first half, Bjorklund actually outscored Florida by herself in the opening 20 minutes.
“We needed to come out punching first, and we didn’t make that first punch,” center Azania Stewart said. “[Bjorklund] shot the lights out and we didn’t adjust at all.”
Only five players on UF’s roster had experienced a game against Tennessee, and Butler said the team might not have been ready for a game of such magnitude.
“I didn’t think anyone necessarily had that look in their eye like it was going to be a special night,” Butler said. “[Tennessee] did a tremendous job of coming on the road and being ready for everything we were going to hand them. That was the most impressive thing — they didn’t do this in Knoxville, they did this in Gainesville.”
Florida was pushed around in all aspects, notching season lows in points (40), field goals made (15) and rebound margin (negative-20). The Gators made just 15 of their 70 looks from the field for a field goal percentage of 21.4 — the third-lowest output in UF history.
Afterward, Butler talked to her team about playing “Florida basketball,” something she said was absent Thursday.
“The name on the jersey sometimes draws more people into the postgame press conference or pregame hype, but our effort and the way that we play shouldn’t be altered at all by who we’re playing,” Butler said. “And that certainly was the difference tonight. …We weren’t the same team tonight.”