The Gators traveled to College Station, Texas, on Thursday looking to win their third straight game in Southeastern Conference play.
Instead, the No. 11 Aggies showed why many consider them the class of the SEC and a Final Four contender, preventing the Gators from collecting a signature victory that would help earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Led by center Kelsey Bone, Texas A&M overcame an inconsistent first half and withstood a furious rally in the final minutes from Florida (15-10, 4-7 SEC) to earn a 78-71 victory in Reed Arena.
“It’s really frustrating,” said Lily Svete, who scored 15 second-half points. “Trying to dig yourself out of a 20-point hole is really difficult. If we would have come out with a better start in both halves, I think we would have won.”
Jennifer George could not execute in the paint. She scored just six points on 3-of-14 shooting while struggling on defense.
“Jennifer didn’t give us very much tonight,” coach Amanda Butler said. “Maybe we need to mix things up again.”
Bone, who entered Thursday as the SEC’s third-leading scorer with 17.1 points per contest, finished with 31 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the season
“[Bone is] very skilled,” Butler said. “She never tries to get outside of what she’s supposed to do and obviously takes great pride in owning that low block.”
Texas A&M (20-5, 10-1 SEC) led 34-27 at halftime and used a 20-6 run to open the second half. Bone scored 12 of her 31 points during the stretch.
Svete, who was held scoreless in the first half, made four more threes in the final 2:08, finishing 5 of 6 from behind the arc, to help UF cut Texas A&M’s lead from 16 to five with less than a minute remaining.
“My teammates just really did a good job of creating for me and finding me open, so I just wanted to knock them down,” Svete said. “I really wasn’t even thinking about it.”
The Aggies withstood the late run with clutch free-throw shooting down the stretch.
Texas A&M made its last nine attempts from the foul line in the final 34 seconds of the contest, thwarting what would have been Florida’s largest comeback win of the season.
“Just tremendous fight … they would never give up, and I am really, really proud of that,” Butler said. “But it’s not excusable, the mistakes that we made.”
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
Contact Phillip Heilman at pheilman@alligator.org.
Jennifer George attempts a shot during Florida’s 88-81 loss to Ole Miss on Jan. 24 at the O’Connell Center.
