Coaches are seldom proud of their teams in a losing effort.
But coach Semeka Randall felt exactly that following a 74-56 loss to No. 18 Florida on Saturday.
I am so proud of them
Randall said. To get 23 offensive rebounds that says a lot when you're playing the No. 18 team in the country. That doesn't happen too often.
The Bobcats outrebounded the Gators offensively 23 to 22, even though the Gators (14-1) had an edge in total rebounds, 48 to 44.
Sophomore center Thia Gholson tied her career-high in rebounds with 10.
Coach Randall really stressed to me how important rebounding is Gholson said. We've been working a lot in practice on rebounding
especially offensive rebounding. That's just something that is only making this team stronger.
Senior center Chandra Myers also had six offensive rebounds, all of which came in the first half.
The problem for her, and the rest of the Bobcats, was the inability to score on the putbacks.
With 16:14 left in the first half, Myers got an offensive rebound and tried to score. In a span of three seconds, Myers got two more offensive rebounds, but was unable to score.
Offensive rebounds
we had 23
but then again
we've got to finish those
said senior Lauren Hmiel, who was the game's leading scorer with 20 points.
Randall was also proud of the way the Bobcats handled Florida's defensive pressure. The Bobcats had only 16 turnovers, which was six less than their average.
We've had a lot of turnovers before
Randall said. To take care of the basketball at 16
which was one of our goals before we started this season
and to do that tonight
