Led by Haley Lorenzen’s third double-double of the season, Florida earned its second straight women’s basketball win Tuesday by defeating Jacksonville, 69-59, at the O’Connell Center.
Lorenzen tied her career-high in scoring with 20-points while grabbing a team-high 11 boards.
“Those good looks come from my teammates,” Lorenzen said. “I don’t get the ball without them so I am grateful that they had those on-point passes.”
Fresh off a big 40-point win on Thanksgiving, the Gators (4-3) wasted no time getting to the basket and opening an early 7-0 lead over the Dolphins (4-3). Jacksonville was able to trim the Gators lead to three, before a triple from Dyandria Anderson extended the lead back to six. The Gators remained in control the rest of the quarter, going into the second with a 14-10 advantage.
In the second quarter, Florida got into a rhythm offensively and slowly began to extend its four-point advantage. After taking a seven-point lead, 21-14, the Gators got it done both offensively and defensively as they went on a 13-7 run over the final eight minutes of the half, taking a 33-21 lead into the locker room.
Florida began to open the game up in the third quarter, scoring the first eight points of the half, and grabbing a 22-point lead, 45-23. Over the next few possessions, the Gators and Dolphins traded scores to make it 50-30 before Jacksonville scored the final five points of the quarter to cut the Gators lead to 15 heading into the fourth.
“Liked the game because we knew Jacksonville is a very tough, gritty, hard-nosed team,” UF coach Cameron Newbauer said. “I think we learned from some of the mistake we made, but anytime you go plus 12 on the glass, 18 offensive rebounds, 26 second chance points. I think we did a good job capitalizing on those offensive rebounds that we got.”
The Gators will next compete in The Big 12/SEC Challenge, playing at Oklahoma (3-3) at 3 p.m. Sunday.
