University of Georgia Athletics
University of Georgia
10-9, 2-4SEC
Florida
10-9, 1-5SEC
UGA Comeback Falls Short vs UF, 76-68
January 22, 2017 | Women's Basketball
Sunday, the Lady Bulldogs mounted a strong comeback on Florida, but fell just short, falling to 10-9 on the season.
Final Stats | Photo Gallery 
| Notes | Quotes
| Florida | TEAM | Georgia |
| 76 | SCORE | 68 |
| 39.4% | FG% | 38.2% |
| 25.0% | 3FG% | 20.0% |
| 66.7% | FT% | 81.5% |
| 42 | REB | 43 |
| 12 | ASST | 14 |
| 14 | TO | 18 |
| 2 | BLK | 7 |
ATHENS --- Despite a late run in the fourth quarter, the Lady Bulldogs (10-9, 2-4) dropped their first home SEC competition of the season against the Florida Gators (10-9, 1-5) 76-68 at Stegeman Coliseum on Sunday afternoon.
With a little more than eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Georgia exploded to a 14-point run to shave the Florida advantage from 17 points to three at 60-57. In that time, redshirt senior guard Pachis Roberts tallied eight of Georgia's points. The Lady Bulldogs continued to threaten the Florida lead as junior guard Simone Costa nailed a 3-pointer to bring the score within one with 1:31 to go in the game. However, Georgia was unable to overtake the lead in the final minute.
"We are a team that sometime shoots them well and sometimes we don't," Georgia head coach Joni Taylor said. "What I think impacted the game the most for us was our defense intensity coming out of the locker room at halftime. That's when Florida had their big run. We just didn't look like we were very interested in playing defense the way we did in the first and second quarter and in the fourth. When you play against any team in the league, especially a team like Florida that's going to be aggressive on both ends of the floor, you can't go down and just let them be comfortable when they run things offensively."
Roberts topped all scorers with 26 points, only three shy of her career high. The Georgia native led the Lady Bulldogs' comeback in the fourth quarter with 16 of Georgia's 25 points. Junior Mackenzie Engram followed with 18 points and collected three steals to tie her career high.
At the half, Florida led 35-33 as junior guard Haley Clark made a lay-up in the lane with the second-quarter clock expiring. Over the first two quarters, Florida and Georgia exchanged the lead six times with the margin never surpassing five points. Engram led all scorers in the first half with 14 points, while Roberts followed with 10.
Florida returned from halftime with seven unanswered points for a 42-33 advantage until freshman Stephanie Paul sank a 3-pointer to end the Gators' run. Florida developed a lead as high as 17, but were held without a field goal in the final 5:03 of the third quarter, while Georgia cut the deficit to 13 points. Going into the fourth quarter, Georgia trailed 56-43.
Florida made a lay-up and two free throws to open the final period before Georgia ignited its 14-point run with a pair of free throws by Roberts. Georgia outscored Florida 25-20 in the fourth quarter.
The Gators and the Lady Bulldogs shot a similar clip from the field, as Florida made 39 percent of the field goals and Georgia had a 38 percent effort. Georgia went 22-for-27 from the foul line while Florida managed 20-of-30 shooting from the charity stripe.
Georgia returns home to host No. 5 South Carolina for the next SEC matchup Thursday night. The game is slated for 7 p.m. and will be aired on SEC Network.
