The UF Women’s Basketball team was selected to play in the WNIT Tournament.  The good thing about this tournament was that they had the chance to play one more game in front of their home crowd on their home court.  I was there to capture the action and definitely had a great experience once again on the sidelines of the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.  The team was matched against last year’s tournament champion, University of South Florida.  South Florida normally plays Florida pretty tough.

The UF women played determined and the game was tight for most of the game.  Steffi Sorensen lead the team with 16 points and was electric during the game.  In the end, the Lady Gators defeated the USF Bulls 61-54 and they moved on to the second round of the tournament.

They would later find out that they faced the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL.  I was able to make it down for the 5 hour trip to Miami and was able to follow the team as they prepared for their second round matchup.

The BankUnited Center is an interesting arena.  It was built for the purpose of basketball on the campus of the University of Miami and is fairly new.  They have floor seating that allows fans to sit right in front of the action.  The lighting inside of the arena was amazing too and I had to really tone down some of the settings that I normally use for a basketball game.  The only downside to the whole arena was the seating situation for visiting photographers.  For the first half, there was really no seating and I had to sit in front of floor seats with fans in the seats.  The second half, I had an open baseline but I feel if Miami had dancers that would be their spot.  At the SEC tournament, there was clearly marked seating for photographers so this was a big change.

The Lady Gators played a hard fought game and for the most part, the game was fairly tight.  During the second half, UM made there run and ultimately, took control of the game.  The Gators lost to the Canes, 64-77, and Miami eventually made it to the Championship game losing to California.

It was a long ride back to Gainesville but that gave me time to think of the opportunity that I was given and the memories that I was able to capture.  I am truly thankful for this opportunity and look forward to hopefully being able to capture more memories next season.  Go Gators!