Preview: Florida Women’s Basketball Hosts Ole Miss

After an electric upset win from the men’s basketball team over Kentucky on Saturday night, the Florida women’s basketball team will look to keep the energy and momentum going in the O’Dome Monday night when they host Ole Miss.

Florida

The Gators enter the game 11-11 and 2-7 in SEC after falling in their last game on the road at Texas A&M 84-76, their second eight-point loss to the Aggies this season.

In that game, they did well to hang in during the first half, but the Aggies pulled away in the second half. After leading 42-39 at halftime, the Gators outscored them 24-16 in the third quarter before holding on in the fourth. The Gators were dominated in the low block by Khaalia Hillsman, the Texas A&M center. She put up 21 points and 18 rebounds, killing the Gators inside throughout the whole game.

Florida has now lost two out of the last three, three out of the last five, and seven out of the last nine.

If they want to bounce back against Ole Miss, they’ll need a bigger performance from their leader, senior Ronni Williams. Williams, the SEC’s leading scorer at 19 points per game, was held to just nine points against the Aggies. This, combined with the fact she got in early foul trouble, meant the Gators didn’t get the performance from Williams that they’ve become used to the past few weeks.

Final pic.twitter.com/kZhA91BFwd

— Gators Women’s Basketball (@GatorsWBK) February 3, 2017

Florida does enter the game though with some momentum from the good play of some of the other players. Haley Lorenzen has two double-doubles in the past four games. Sydney Morang is starting to come along after hitting a season-high four three-pointers against Texas A&M.

In addition, Delicia Washington had a breakout game against the Aggies. The SEC leading scorer among freshmen registered 25 points on 12 of 20 shooting. She had 20 points against Vandy in the game before, only to be overshadowed by the historic 43 points by Ronni Williams that night.

Ole Miss

They enter the game 14-8, with only a 3- 6 record in the SEC. They’re coming off of a big win over Georgia, ending a four game losing streak. In the game, guard Shandricka Sessom was big, as she almost grabbed a double-double on her way to a 16 point, eight rebound, and six assist statline.

https://twitter.com/OleMissWBB/status/825835464758292481

Ole Miss doesn’t have one standout scorer, as the points are more evenly distributed among the team. Two guards are the only one who average in double-figure scoring. Sessom puts up 12.2 points and 5.9 rebounds, while Madinah Muhammad averages 12.9 points per game and is the team’s leading scorer.

Guard Erica Sisk is a key player to watch out for Ole Miss. She only averages just over eight points per game but she sits in the top five in the conference in assists and steals. She dishes for an average of 4.3 assists per game, and she’s getting 2.1 steals per game.

With the three guards being the most important players, Florida can exploit it’s rebounding advantage. In SEC games, the Gators have a +1.9 rebounding margin, while Ole Miss has been getting rebounded by over five per games. In addition, Florida ranks in the top five in the SEC for rebounding while Ole Miss sits in 10th.

Tip-off

Tip-off is set for 7pm and you can hear the game live on ESPN 98.1 FM/850 AM WRUF beginning at 6:45 pm.