It’s not easy to score 122 points.
But when your opponent continues to press you for 40 minutes, baskets can come at a fast and furious pace.
It’s unlikely Florida (12-1) will match its school-record output of 122 points that it set Dec. 20, 2015, in a victory against Saint Francis at noon today (SEC Network) when it plays host to No. 8 Mississippi State (13-1) in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams at the O’Connell Center.
That doesn’t mean coach Amanda Butler and the Gators won’t try. After all, it’s a lot easier to control tempo and to push the pace when you have 10 players averaging 13 minutes per game and nine players averaging at least six points per game. That’s what Florida did against Saint Francis, and that is what it has helped it score 82 or more points in eight of its victories.
“This is a senior-led team that really gets it and has been through a lot of different type of seasons,” Butler said. “The players have done a good job of carrying the message forward that this is how we are the best and that it is not one person playing 35 or 37 minutes. It is the whole team playing 22, 27, 28, 19 minutes and really distributing those minutes. Those results are hard to argue with. It seems to be the way we thrive.”
Florida has been thriving since a 97-91 loss to Temple in its season opener on Nov. 13, 2015. Since then, Florida has reeled off 12-straight wins, which is tied for the second-longest streak in program history. The Gators have relied on a high-scoring attack that is No. 1 in the SEC and fourth nationally (87.4 ppg.). Florida also is tied for third nationally in steals per game (14.2) and fourth in turnovers forced. MSU enters the game second in the league in scoring (81.7), third in scoring defense (51.3), and second in turnover margin (10.4). Florida is last in the SEC in scoring defense (67.3).
Cassie Peoples (11.0 ppg.) leads four players in double figures. Haley Lorenzen (10.8), Ronni Williams (10.7), and Elena Christinaki (10) are three of the Gators’ other primary scoring options, but Butler said the team has excelled because it has embraced the team concept on and off the court. She said there are no “outliers” on this team in part because they players helped to strengthen the culture first and believed that success would follow.
“They have done a lot of personal things to demonstrate that they have a personal investment in each other as people,” Butler said. “There is a lot of appreciation of how good their teammates are as basketball players.”
Florida extended its winning streak to 12 Wednesday in a 93-79 victory against Central Florida in the second game of the SEC/AAC Challenge at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. It enters today’s game having won the last five meetings against MSU in Gainesville, Florida.
Last season, MSU earned a 75-62 victory that snapped Florida’s nine-game winning streak in the series. That loss was part of a 13-17 season that saw Florida finish 5-11 in the SEC, which was tied for 11th.
Florida’s finish in 2014-15 helps explain why the league’s media and coaches picked it 12th in the preseason poll. But Florida has surprised and is one of 11 teams that has three or fewer losses entering the first weekend of conference play.
Butler hopes her team can continue to push tempo and to fill it up. She has confidence it will in part because one of the team’s slogans — If you keep doing the right things, the right things eventually are going to happen — captures a mind-set that enables the Gators to handle any adversity they encounter.
“We’re playing team basketball,” Butler said. “It is fun to score a lot of points and the winning streak is fun for people on the outside to talk about, but we want to prepare to win the next one. We think our best chance to do that is to continue to play team basketball and to share the ball and to play a lot of people and to play the pace we want to play and to stay committed to each other on a really personal level.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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