An emotional season for the Florida women’s basketball team has come to an end with a 69-52 loss to the Central Florida Knights on Saturday in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Tournament.
The Gators started the season with plenty of questions surrounding the program after head coach Cameron Newbauer stepped down following accusations of abuse. Kelly Rae Finley took over as interim head coach and led Florida to an 11-5 start. Then, the program lost star guard Lavender Briggs for the season to an injury. Briggs announced her intention to transfer days later, eventually landing at Maryland.
Staring down a conference schedule filled with matchups against ranked opponents, the Gators had to find a way to win without their leading scorer at the time.
Enter fifth-year guard Kiara “Kiki” Smith.
With Briggs out of the picture, Smith became the main focus of the Florida offense. She led the team in scoring, rebounds, assists and steals by the season’s end. Prepared to make a deep run in the conference and NCAA Tournament, Smith’s final season as a Gator was cut short by injury in the first round of the SEC Tournament against Vanderbilt. UF ended up winning that game by a point, but it would be their last victory of the season.
Florida was bounced from the conference tournament by Ole Miss in the second round bringing us to Saturday’s 17-point drubbing by the Knights. The Gators tried to keep it close, but UCF’s tenacious defense was too overwhelming for a team that’s lost its best ball handlers.
Nina Rickards took over the scoring load for Florida with 17 points on the afternoon. Six of those came in the first quarter, but the 5-point lead established by UCF in the first ten minutes would only grow as each quarter came to a close.
By halftime, the Gators trailed by 11 and were down another player. Forward Faith Dut was helped off the court with a minute remaining in the half and did not return. Florida briefly brought the lead down to six, but UCF was able to come back at will and win every quarter. Brittney Smith led the Knights with 26 points and six rebounds, and guard Diamond Battles scored 18 points.
Although the Knights never really looked back after taking the lead in the first quarter, Florida put up a good fight considering everything thrown at them over the last few months. A first-round exit from the Tournament can hardly be viewed as a failure, and the program is in good hands with Finley being elevated to permanent head coach.
UCF goes on to play 11-time Tournament winner UConn in the second round. The Huskies would very likely have crushed this depleted Gators squad, and the Knights are clearly the better team right now.
Florida finishes the 2021-22 season 21-11 and with plenty to look forward to with Finley at the helm.
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