Women's Basketball Builds On WBIT vs St. John’s

Kelly Rae Finley looks to build on historical SEC tournament run with a deep run in the Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament

By Loren Meadows, GatorBaitMedia.com

The Florida Gators Women’s Basketball team is less than two weeks removed from advancing to the SEC quarterfinals and winning three games in the tournament for the first time since 1997.

 Kelly Rae Finley and staff continue to build a program that is rapidly putting the SEC on notice. In her second year as head coach (Finley spent 2021-2022 as interim) she is only the second coach in Florida women’s basketball history to reach the postseason in each of her first three years.

This season the Gators will take part in the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament an NCAA sponsored event that will feature the best 32 teams that failed to make the tournament with the “first four out” of the NCAA tournament as the top four seeds.  The top 8 seeds will host the first and second round games while the semifinals and finals will be held at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis.

The Gators enter the tournament as a #3 seed and host St. John's out of the Big East Thursday evening at 7 pm. The matchup with will be particularly special for one of the Gators most prominent players. Reigning Sixth Woman of the Year Leilani Correa spent three years at St. John's before transferring to Florida in 2022. Correa scored over 1,000 points during her time and St. John's and has continued to flourish under Finley reaching the 2,000 point mark earlier this season. 

Kelly Rae Finley: Building program (UAA Photo)

The Gators are poised to make a deep run in the WBIT and with a win Thursday will await the winner of the contest between 2nd-seeded Toledo and Cleveland State. Should the Gators prevail against St. John's and Cleveland State takes down Toledo, the Gators would host Cleveland State at the O’Connell Center on Sunday.

After their last game at the SEC tournament Finley credited seniors Correa, Zippy Broughton and Faith Dut for setting a standard that should elevate the program for years to come and a consistent presence in postseason play will allow the Gators to build on recent recruiting success as the look to add key pieces through the transfer portal to go along with McDonald’s All-Americans Liv McGill and Me’Arah O’Neil (daughter of NBA legend Shaquille O’Neil) who will enroll at Florida this summer.