Preview: Florida Women’s Basketball Travels to Alabama

The Florida women’s basketball team (12-12, 3-8 SEC) will travel to Tuscaloosa on Sunday to take on Alabama (15-9, 3-8 SEC), as the two teams meet for the first and only time this regular season.

Feels so good!!! pic.twitter.com/CkOkTJs1uS

— Gators Women’s Basketball (@GatorsWBK) February 10, 2017

 Florida

The Gators are coming off of their first home SEC win of the season after knocking off Arkansas 57-53 on Thursday night.

Florida’s defense , which going into that game had given up the second most points in the SEC, took some steps forward.

They held Arkansas to just five points in the first quarter, and limited the Razorbacks to under 37% shooting from the field in the game. Gator coach Amanda Butler talked about how she liked how her team had won because of defense and rebounding. The Gators out-rebounded Arkansas 42-31.

Offensively, Butler has to hope the Gators have found their rhythm.

Ronni Williams notched her 20th career double-double against the Razorbacks, and leads the SEC in scoring at just under 19 points per game.

Williams might be the senior leader on this team, but it hasn’t been just her stepping up for Florida.

Sydney Morang has added a new dimension to the Gators scoring options. Morang has hit 10 treys over her past three games, as many as she had made the entire season, and she’s led the Gators in that category over this three game stretch.

Morang has tied her career-high of 4 threes in a game!! pic.twitter.com/4KONZnK9u1

— Gators Women’s Basketball (@GatorsWBK) February 10, 2017

Haley Lorenzen has been able to be counted on to be a second scorer for Florida, consistently pitching in with 12 to 14 points a game throughout the SEC schedule. Delicia Washington meanwhile has played great as a freshman, averaging over 15 points in her last three games.

Dyandria Anderson has been a stat sheet stuffer for the Gators. She grabs boards, forces steals, and knocks down key shots, like the game-icing free-throws against Arkansas, but her biggest asset is her passing. She’s tied for second in the SEC in assists with 4.7 of them per game, really helping to facilitate what Florida tries to do on offense.

Alabama

The Crimson Tide come into the contest on a cold streak, having dropped their past four games. That includes their most recent game, a 69-48 loss at Texas A&M. Alabama is also on a losing run against the Gators, having lost their past six meetings with them.

Alabama’s hopes of ending that run start on the defensive end of the court.

They have the leading shot blocker in the conference in freshman Ashley Knight, who has 57 on the season and averages over two rejections per game.

Apart from Knight’s shot blocking abilities, Alabama plays stingy defense and excels on the glass. They’re currently holding opponents to just 60.2 points per game, including a low 28.2% shooting from beyond the arc. In the rebounding category, they beat teams by an average of six boards per game as they haul in over 42 per contest.

In terms of generating points for themselves, the Tide are led by junior guard Meoshonti Knight. She averages 11.7 points per game, but can go off on any night, like when she dropped 29 on Ole Miss earlier this season.

Sophomore forward Shaquera Wade and junior guard Hannah Cook also average double-digit points for the Tide. Cook does her damage from beyond the arc, knocking down a conference-leading 2.5 treys per game on 37.5% shooting from downtown, which also leads the SEC.

Tip-off

Less than 24 hours until we break out the PINK! Looking forward to this year's #PowerofPink #Play4Kay event! #RollTide pic.twitter.com/yq2T5snGIj

— Alabama Women’s Basketball (@AlabamaWBB) February 11, 2017

Tip-off is at 2 p.m. EST in Tuscaloosa.