Colleges

Gators get past Gamecocks

By Phil Kegler, Special to the Times
Published March 7, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT [AP photo] South Carolina's Jewel May, left, fights for the ball in front of Florida's Aneika Henry during the first half. The Gators advanced and face Tennessee today.

NASHVILLE - Florida coach Amanda Butler got what she wanted for her birthday.

Two regular-season meetings between Florida and South Carolina were decided by a combined seven points. Thursday's margin of victory for the Gators was twice that.

With her parents in the stands, Butler's team treated her to a 71-57 win against No. 10 seed South Carolina (15-15) in the first round of the SEC tournament. Seventh-seeded Florida (18-12) faces second-seeded and third-ranked Tennessee (27-2) at 3:30 today.

"I just wanted to win," Butler said. "Didn't care by how many, didn't care what it looked like, just wanted to win and advance."

She got some help from key Florida figures - past and present.

Former Gators coach Carol Ross, who led the program to nine NCAA Tournament appearances during her tenure from 1990-2002 and coached Butler, gave a passionate pregame speech.

"Your head coach is going to coach her rear end off," Ross recalled telling the Gators. "If these two coaches went out and played one-on-one, your coach would win because she's a competitor. Competitors keep playing in this tournament. If you play like your head coach, you will outcompete South Carolina and you will win."

Lone senior Depree Bowden took the message to heart, scoring 19 of her game-high 21 in the first half. The guard set a school SEC tournament record for 3-pointers made by converting 5 of 6. Her shooting helped key a 21-3 first-half run that turned a 10-all score into a 34-17 halftime lead.

"I think you saw an instance of a senior sensing the moment," Butler said. "Her shots were not just big in terms of momentum and that sort of thing, but it made everybody around her confident.

"When one of our shooters is hitting, I think it makes all of our team feel like things are going to happen on both ends of the floor."

The Gators faced the Volunteers just eight days ago. That resulted in an 88-61 drubbing in Knoxville on Tennessee's Senior Night.

Miss. 54, Miss. State 49: The eighth-seeded Rebels, led by Bianca Thomas scoring 25 off the bench, rattled off 10 straight points in the second half to open up a back-and-forth game. The ninth-seeded Bulldogs (16-14) made it a single possession game in the final minutes, but Alexis Rack missed a potential tying 3-pointer with nine seconds left. Ole Miss (13-15) plays top-seeded and seventh-ranked LSU (25-4) at 1 p.m. today.

Georgia 71, Alabama 62: Ashley Houts and Christy Marshall each scored 15 and All-American Tasha Humphrey added 11 to lead the fifth-seeded Bulldogs (22-8) past the 12th-seeded Crimson Tide (8-22). Alabama, which recorded just one regular-season conference win, trailed by just two at the half. In the second half, Georgia used a 12-2 run to open an 11-point cushion with 8:45 left and the outcome was never again in doubt. The Bulldogs face fourth-seeded Kentucky (14-14) at 7:30 tonight.

[Last modified March 6, 2008, 23:56:11]