Women's basketball: No. 13 FSU drops UF

<p>The Florida women’s basketball team was given every chance Tuesday to log one of the biggest upsets in the Amanda Butler era, but as the buzzer sounded against No. 13 Florida State, all the Gators could leave with was experience for a young squad.</p><p>UF led for most of the first half, but came out flat after intermission. A late rally wasn’t enough to ward off clutch shooting from a group of veteran Seminoles, as the visitors escaped with a 66-62 win.</p><p>UF senior Sharielle Smith led with 18 points and a career-high tying 13 rebounds for the fourth double-double of her career. Two of her career-high matching four 3-point shots came back-to-back to give the Gators a two-point lead with 2:04 to play.</p><p>The Seminoles (2-0) rallied with a Jacinta Monroe free throw and Alexa Deluzio jumper with 37 seconds remaining to regain the advantage. A Courtney Ward steal and pair of free throws extended the edge and proved to be enough after a long Jordan Jones 3-point opportunity bounced off the back of the rim with three seconds to play.</p><p>“You want to beat them worse than you beat anybody,” said FSU center Cierra Bravard, who finished with nine points and four rebounds, “It’s a fun environment to play in.”</p><p>Florida (1-1) jumped out to an early lead and capitalized on 10 FSU fouls that led to 8-of-11 free-throw shooting in the half. Five Gator 3-pointers in the half kept the Seminoles at arms length and held the lead on Florida’s side for all but 2:54.</p><p>UF missed 16 of its first 21 shots in the opening 10 minutes of the second half and allowed a 7-0 run over 2:21 of that time to hand FSU the lead. Deluzio, who missed her first seven shots and both free throws, caught fire late and scored five straight points before the team went without a field goal for 6:39. Smith’s pair of 3s forced the sixth lead change of the game before Deluzio broke the drought with her go-ahead jumper in the closing minute.</p><p>Monroe, FSU’s leading scorer, was limited to five minutes in the first half after she picked up her second foul early. The 6-foot-4 forward finished with nine points and a team-high 11 rebounds in 19 minutes. The Seminoles outrebounded the Gators 44-41, logged 16 assists on 25 field goals and shot 42.4 percent. Chastity Clayton came off of the bench to lead the team with 13 points, including 2-of-3 shooting from beyond the arc.</p><p>“I’m really, really pleased with our effort,” said Butler, who played six underclassmen in her 10-player rotation. “I felt that we had tremendous fight and that was why we were in position to win the game in the end. I think we learned some things about ourselves.”</p><p>Florida’s dismal shooting in the second half sunk the team to 32.8 percent on the night and 9-of-31 (29 percent) from 3-point range. Jones followed her stellar opening game with 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting and 2-of-11 from beyond the arc. The loss snapped a 17-game non-conference home winning streak that began following a loss to the Seminoles in 2007.</p>