Gators Women’s Basketball Earns a Top 25 win over Arkansas 83-80

The Gator women’s basketball team wins an SEC battle and earns a win over a top 25 team in Sunday’s match up against Arkansas as the Gators win at home 83-80.

Gators Women (15-12,6-8)

As the Gators slowly start to conclude the regular season with one more game in the O’Connell center for the 2020 season, the program had its Senior Day and seniors Zada Williams and Paige Robinson were sent out on a winning note at home.

Razor sharp 💥 pic.twitter.com/fw9p2l9bZ2

— Gators Women’s Basketball (@GatorsWBK) February 23, 2020

This is Florida’s first win over an AP Top 25 opponent at home since February 2016, when the Gators took down Texas A&M. This win over Arkansas marks Florida second time this season Florida has beaten a ranked team.

In an earlier match up this season, Florida was taken down by the Razorbacks 79-57.

The Gators had four players in double-figures in this game led by junior Kiki Smith with a 26-point career-high for the season. Stamping the win for Florida, Smith scored eight of her 26 points in the last minutes of the game.

Smith had this to say about her performance.

“Just having an aggressive mindset and being in the gym this past week. I knew in order for us to pull off this win I needed to put the ball in the basket a lot more.”

Following alongside her is freshman Lavender Briggs who is the leading scorer for the Gators.  She added 20 points to the board; she came into this game tied for SEC freshmen scoring leadership at 14.6 points per game.

Behind her was senior Zada Williams with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Emanuely De Oliveira  with 11 points.

Arkansas Razorbacks (21-6, 9-5)

The Razorbacks came into this game ranked 22nd in the AP Poll and in fourth place in the SEC. Arkansas is one of the top teams in the nation known for their three-point shooting, but they could not get it done on this day against Florida.

Amber Ramirez and A’Tyanna Gaulden led Arkansas in scoring as each player tossed in 17 points.  Following behind was red shirt junior Chelsea Dungee with 12 points.

Up Next

The Gators return back home Thursday to face off against number one South Carolina in their last home game of the season.