The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Suffer Road Loss At No. 15 Florida
1/25/2009 | Women's Basketball
GAINESVILLE, Fla. Florida featured four players in double figures and scored 27 points off Ole Miss turnovers as the No. 15/19 Gators posted a 75-54 victory over the Rebels Sunday afternoon from the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
Gator guards Steffi Sorensen and Trumae Lucas each scored 13 points to lead Florida, while both Marshae Dotson and Sha Brooks finished with 11 points apiece.
Ole Miss junior guard Bianca Thomas scored a game-high 18 points to go along with seven rebounds. Shawn Goff also finished in double figures as she tallied 12 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots. Goff needs just two points to become the 22nd player in school history to score 1,000 points.
Dotson scored the first nine points of the game for Florida to help the Gators jump out to an early 9-4 lead. Just over a minute later, Sorensen hit her first of three 3-pointers to put the Gators ahead 12-4 and force Ole Miss head coach Renee Ladner into a timeout.
Florida (18-2, 4-1 SEC) went on to lead by as many as 12 points in the first half before the Rebels used an 8-2 run midway through the half to cut the Gator lead to six points at 23-17 following a pair of free throws from Shantell Black.
From that point on however, Ole Miss managed just two points in the final 8:46 as the Gators finished the first half on a 14-2 run to take a 37-19 lead into halftime.
Ole Miss (13-7, 2-3 SEC) used one final run in the second half to try and cut into the Gator lead. Trailing by 23 points with 6:38 left to play, the Rebels used a 13-0 run in just over two minutes to trim Florida's lead to 10 points at 60-50. Thomas accounted for nine of the 13 points during the stretch.
Lucas stopped the bleeding on the other end for the Gators as she hit her only three-pointer of the afternoon to put Florida ahead by 13 points with 3:34 left on the clock. From that point on, Florida outscored Ole Miss 12-4 over the final 3:13 en route to the victory.
Ole Miss returns to the hardwood Thursday evening at 6 p.m. (CT) when the Rebels travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to take on No. 10/12 Tennessee.
