It didn’t take long for Georgia to put the game out of Florida’s reach.
UF shot the ball poorly throughout the first 10 minutes of the game and dug itself into a 16-6 hole early after committing five turnovers and shooting just 20 percent up to that point.
The slow start led to the Gators’ 61-52 loss to the Bulldogs in Athens, Ga., on Sunday.
“We made a lot of silly mistakes,” said senior guard Jennifer Mossor, who finished with a season-high 11 points. “Our 16 turnovers in the first half was just awful. You can’t get into a roll like that, turning the ball over.”
Georgia’s defense forced 16 Florida turnovers in the first half alone. That didn’t put the game away, but it was too much to overcome.
Butler has encouraged her players to shoot this season and even though the ball hasn’t found the bottom of the net, her squad sparked a 9-0 run to narrow the gap to a seven-point lead at halftime.
Both teams came out in the second half unable to muster the same type of firepower seen in the first half.
The Gators pulled within single digits five separate times before Georgia iced the game on free throws. The seven-point deficit the team faced at halftime was the closest it would come.
“I thought our play was just very inconsistent today,” coach Amanda Butler said.
She pointed to the team’s inability to establish itself in the paint, as well as “streaky” shooting.
“The thing that really jumps out at me was our turnovers in the first half, we just really couldn’t get any type of flow because we didn’t handle the ball well in the first half.”
UF guard Jordan Jones, who finished with a team-high 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting, said her team wasn’t ready to play against a top-10 team on the road.
“We’re obviously going to sit down and watch the film,” Jones said. “I think it’s good for us to have this bad taste in our mouths. Playing a good team like Georgia, it’s good we can see how poorly we played and we lost to them by nine.”
Butler said her team didn’t really set up a presence in the post — partly due to turnovers that staggered momentum.
Azania Stewart, coming off a career high in points, was shut down by Georgia’s 6-foot-5 center Angel Robinson, who finished with 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Freshman Jennifer George crashed the boards with a career-high 10 rebounds, but didn’t erupt as an offensive force, finishing with two points.
“I felt like when we didn’t finish or fought for a rebound, we didn’t take it back up with the toughness and the grit and the intent to score,” Butler said. “We were a little more worried about maybe getting our shot blocked, or maybe the fact that we were getting fouled, and that can’t matter.”
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
