ATLANTA, Ga. – Florida women's basketball will face Georgia Tech Wednesday night in the 2023 ACC/SEC Challenge. The Atlanta based contest will be Florida's first away game of the 2023-24 season after competing on neutral grounds last week in the Baha Mar Tournament. GEORGIA TECH (5-1, 0-0 ACC) Date: Wednesday, Nov. 28 Time: 5 p.m. ET Site: McCamish Pavilion Stream: ACC Network Radio: ESPN Gainesville 98.1 FM / 850 AM Stats: StatBroadcast SERIES RECORD: Georgia Tech leads all-time series 1-0, with their previous meeting dating back to Dec. 5, 1986. In their sole meeting 37 years ago, the Yellow Jackets defeated Florida 82-72. FLORIDA'S LAST GAME: Florida most recently played in the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Championship, defeating both the Purdue Boilermakers (52-49), and the Columbia Lions (83-81). In both games, Florida was led in scoring by Aliyah Matharu with 41 points total, and led in rebounds by Ra Shaya Kyle with a combined 16. The highlight of the tournament was a buzzer-beater from Matharu with one second left in the Columbia game to give Florida the two point win and close out their time in the Bahamas. After the two-game tournament, Matharu is currently ranked second in the SEC for scoring, averaging 19.7 points a game. ABOUT GEORGIA TECH: Georgia Tech also holds a 5-1 record going into Wednesday night's matchup and are coming off a 66-55 win on Nov. 25, versus New Mexico. Georgia Tech has three players averaging double figures in scoring— Kayla Blackshear (17.2 ppg), Tonie Morgan (15.3 ppg), and Rusne Augustinaite (10.7 ppg). Leading the Yellow Jackets in rebounds is Tonie Morgan, grabbing an average of 7.2 per game.
Florida with about as bad a first quarter as you could imagine. Lots of turnovers, missed shots and Mathura with two fouls…..Good news, we are only down 17-14 and Georgia Tech looking very average.
UF trails 17-14 after the 1st quarter. Gators not shooting well and Mathura picked up 2 fouls in the first 4 minutes. Laila Reynolds scored our first 7 points. Correa 0-5 from the field and we're getting outrebounded by a smaller, but quicker team. Without Mathura and Correa contributing, the team really struggles. Not sure why we're not working it inside more to Kyle and/or Dut, as they have nobody big enough to handle them.
Gators getting outhustled, plus they're not guarding the blond freshman for GA Tech who is the only one who can consistently hit 3's. She has 11 of their points.
Gators played great defense the last 5 minutes of the half, but their shooting is way off/ Only down by 1. Gotta get Correa and Mathura involved the 2nd half.
I love the hustle by this team but man, they can be hard to watch at times. So many empty possessions full of missed layups, out of control rim runs, wide open bricks and inexplicable passes directly to a defender. The fact that GT only has a 1 point lead at the half with Matharu on the bench with 3 fouls and no points is more of an indictment of the Yellow Jackets than anything Florida is doing.
UF down 28-27 at half. Broughton and Mathura with 3 fouls each. Really ugly first half. This game is right there for the taking as Georgia Tech looking very average so far. Hoping we get hot in second half.
Burke, I had to laugh reading your post. You hate to be negative but you are 100% right on. This is painful to watch but we are gluttons for punishment. Hope we awaken from our funk and play a nice second half!
Would like to see Mathura act more like a point guard and get the rest of the team involved, Reynolds included, and stop forcing her shot.
She definitely plays a bit out of control, but talent is there for sure. The year hasn't been pretty so far, but if Matharu starts playing a bit smarter, Zippy gets back to her old self, and Laila grows up quickly... we definitely have some potential.
Defense really stepped it up in the 3rd quarter and Mathura was tremendous. And they only committed 2 fouls in the quarter.
