GAINESVILLE, Fla. — It has not taken long for Kiyomi McMiller to establish herself as the Florida Gators‘ top scorer in Tammi Reiss’ debut season leading the women’s basketball program. Now, the newcomer has etched herself into the program’s record books.
With a career-high 42 points in the Gators’ 95-65 win over UCF on Thursday, she broke the UF record for most points in a home game while also scoring the fourth-most points in a single game in program history. Her seven makes from deep are tied for the third-most in a single game in program history.
She also became just the fifth player in program history to post back-to-back 30-point games after scoring 31 points in Florida’s season-opening win over Bucknell on Monday. If that was not enough, her 42 points are also the most by a Gator since 2017.
McMiller said her mindset while putting up points was simple: keep going until they stop her. UCF never did.
“From the beginning, our mindset was ‘kill them and don’t stop,'” McMiller said. “Just keep attacking them, attacking them, attacking them. We want to beat them by 100 if we can.”
Reiss explained that Florida had prepared for UCF to play McMiller more aggressively, with plans to move the ball to someone else. Specifically, the plan was if McMiller or Vanessa Harris got “blitzed,” Vivian Iwuchukwu would be the next target. Iwuchukwu still scored a career-high 20 points, but McMiller was never truly contested.
“We were ready for it,” she explained. ” … But it didn’t happen. When you shoot that efficiently from the 3, you’re going to have a big night.
After transferring from Penn State, the 5-foot-9 junior guard was expected to be the Gators’ key offensive piece after a mass exodus of players transferring after Reiss’ hiring last March, an exodus that included star guard Liv McGill and left Florida with just one returning player on this year’s roster. McMiller, a former five-star recruit with stints at Rutgers and with the Nittany Lions, has found her groove and is making her mark on the program.
“It was pretty special,” Reiss said. “When you shoot 7-for-10, efficiency that way, and you’re mid-range is your bread and butter, and you can get to the rim, when you’re hitting a 3, there’s really nothing a defense can do other than change coverage.”
While Florida’s win over the Knights had plenty of special personal accolades such as McMiller’s plethora of stats, Iwuchukwu’s career-high 20 points, Harris’ career-high 11 rebounds or Jade Weathersby’s first double-double as a Gator, Reiss made it clear her goals for the program extend farther than individual success.
“Individually, as a player, you have your individual goals, what you want,” Reiss said. “… As a coach, all I care about is winning the game. I don’t care who scores the 40. I don’t care who has the 12 rebounds. I don’t care. As long as we win the game. The players will say the same thing.”
Florida returns to the court on Sunday at 2 p.m. for a matchup at Chattanooga. Another 30-point effort from McMiller would make her just the second player in program history to record three straight 30-point games.
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