The Alabama women’s basketball fell at Florida on Thursday 80-72 to fall to 13-6 overall and 2-4 in Southeastern Conference play.
Alabama crawled its way back from a 21-point deficit to get back in the game, but Florida took control in the final 7 minutes, going on a 15-3 run to seal the victory. With the win, No. 22/23 Florida improves to 16-3 and 4-2 in SEC action.
Florida started off the game strong, scoring 9 points straight after Alabama got the opening basket. At the end of the first, Alabama trailed by 11, 21-10. Alabama bounced back in the opening stages of the second quarter, stringing together an 8-2 run to cut the lead down to five, but Florida stretched its lead out to as many as 21 before Alabama came back with a run of its own to make it a five-point game, 41-36, heading into halftime.
Alabama came out of halftime firing on all cylinders, outscoring the Gators by 15 in the third. Alabama then took the lead late in the third quarter, 57-56, and the game was tied, 61-61, at the end of third.
Sophomore Hannah Cook started off the fourth with a three-pointer to regain the lead, but Florida strung together 10-3 run in the final of 4:30 of the game to ensure the victory for the Gators.
“You do everything you can to get a basket,” said Alabama head coach Kristy Curry in a press release. “You’ve just got to make shots. I thought they were a lot tougher and better conditioned down the stretch. Everybody is going to talk about how we competed and played hard, but I am tired of that. At the end of the day they’ve got to find ways to make plays and wins games.”
Sophomore Meoshonti Knight turned in a career performance despite the loss, scoring a career-high 23 points on the night. Freshman Shaquera Wade also scored a career-high, tallying 13 points. Cook and sophomore Quanetria Bolton were also in double figures, scoring 16 and 11 points respectively.
On the night, Alabama shot 47.3 percent (26-55) from the field and Florida connected on 54.2 percent (32-59) of its own shots.
Alabama will travel to Vanderbilt to take on the Commodores for the second time this season. The game will take place in Nashville with a 6 p.m. CT tipoff time.
