Florida's Kelly Rae Finley explains what's working in first-half rout of Missouri in SEC Tournament

The Florida Gators jumped out to a 42-26 halftime lead over the Missouri Tigers in the first round of the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament. A key piece of that half was Florida’s defensive effort and ability to slow down the Tigers’ offense.

Heading into the half, Florida head coach Kelly Rae Finley spoke to the SEC Network, explaining how Florida’s defense was so impactful.

“Just our pressure, our pace,” Kelly Rae Finley said. “You know, we were really focused on disrupting them and forcing their offense to play quite a bit higher than they want.”

At one point the Gators had a 16-0 run to start the second quarter. At another point, Florida put together a 7-0 run. It’s a run brought on by that defensive ability, as well as sharing the ball well. That added up to 10 first half assists for Florida, which is exactly what Finely wanted to see out of her team.

“That was the goal,” Kelly Rae Finley said. “We’re better when we move the ball side to side, make them guard space. Then, we’re really good when we’re off the bounce as well.”

Florida had two players scoring in double figures during the first half, with Alberte Rimdal and Aliyah Matharu scoring 10 and 11 points respectively. On the other side, Ashton Judd leads the way for Missouri with eight points in the first half.

It was a close game going into the second quarter for Kelly Rae Finley and the Gators. However, after outscoring Missouri 29-10, the Gators established a big lead and had to feel good about the position they were to advance in the SEC Tournament with a half to play in their first round game.

Florida is coming into the SEC Tournament as the 11th seed, after going 5-11 in conference play this season. Missouri, meanwhile, went just 2-14 in SEC play and ended up as the 14th seed because of it.

This is a rematch of a game played in late February when Missouri made the road trip to take on the Gators in Gainesville. That ended in a Florida win, with the Gators winning by 16. That game was the only previous meeting for these two this season.

The winner of this game is going to take on Vanderbilt in the second round of the SEC Tournament. Missouri won a game against Vanderbilt this season, while more recently also dropping one to the Commodores. For their part, the Gators lost to Vanderbilt in their one meeting.