Me’Arah O’Neal had 16 points and 12 rebounds. helping Florida women’s basketball snap a three-game losing streak with a 61-53 win over Auburn before 1,752 at the O’Connell Center.
O’Neal, the daughter of NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, went 5 of 9 from the floor and 2 of 2 from 3-point range, Of her 12 rebounds, five came on the offensive glass.
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“Getting on the boards on both ends, really got me going,” said O’Neal, who notched her seventh double-double of the season and first in SEC play. “The 3-ball, I love to shoot the 3, that gets me excited so that got me going, too.”
Overall, the Florida Gators outrebounded Auburn 38-34 and outscored the Tigers 15-12 in second chance points.
“We’ve been working really hard on that,” Florida women’s basketball coach Kelly Rae-Finley said. “When you crash the offensive glass you’ve got to go to pursue the ball, you’ve got to go hard to the basketball. I thought we probably could have finished a couple of more of those but our effort was there and our mentality was there.”
Down 26-25 at halftime, Florida outscored Auburn 22-12 in the third quarter to take control of the game, then held off a late Auburn charge to pick up its first win since beating Missouri 89-71 on Jan. 18. Laila Reynolds scored a team-high 17 points for UF, while guard Liv McGill had 13 points and 5 assists as UF’s avenged a 60-50 loss at Auburn on Jan. 11.
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Florida (14-11, 2-8 SEC) next plays Sunday, Feb. 8 at home against Arkansas (noon, SEC Network).
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Me’Arah O’Neal leads Florida women’s basketball to win over Auburn
