GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Senior Tierney Jenkins and freshman Kaneisha Horn combined for 35 points, but it wasn”t enough as the University of Alabama women”s basketball team fell to Florida 70-64 Thursday night at the O”Connell Center.
With the loss, Alabama slips to 11-10 and 0-8 in the Southeastern Conference, while Florida improves to 13-9 and 3-5.
“We played hard and competed for 40 minutes today, which is something we have not been doing,” Alabama coach Wendell Hudson said. “Florida stepped up down the stretch and made the plays that helped them win.”
Horn led Alabama with a career-high 21 points, while Jenkins followed with 14 and a game-high 16 rebounds for her 14th double-double of the season.
Florida took an early lead before Alabama used an 11-4 run, that included seven points from sophomore Celiscia Farmer, to take the lead. The Gators steadily chipped away and took the lead back at the 7-minute, 16-second mark at 20-19. There were eight lead changes the rest of the half before an Ericka Russell drive with two seconds remaining gave Alabama a 32-30 halftime lead.
Florida opened the second half with six unanswered points before Horn connected on a layup at 17:06. The Gators scored the next five to take a 41-34 lead, their largest of the game to that point. From there, Alabama cut the lead to one with a layup from freshman Jasmine Robinson with 10:54 to go, but it failed to get any closer.
Florida outrebounded Alabama 52-41 and capitalized on that edge to score 22 second-chance points. Alabama had nine.
“The second-chance points really hurt us,” Hudson said. “This game was all about the little things, and Florida did what they needed to do to get the win.”
Alabama will play its final game in Coleman Coliseum at 2 p.m. Sunday against No. 17 Kentucky before moving to Foster Auditorium.
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