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Florida State women's basketball: Seminoles dominate 2nd quarter in victory over Wake Forest

ehsan kassim, tallahassee democrat
·5 min read

Behind a dominant second quarter Florida State women’s basketball easily routed Wake Forest in an ACC matchup Wednesday.

The No. 23 Seminoles limited the Demon Deacons to just four second-quarter points in a 72-44 victory at Donald L. Tucker Civic Center

Ta’Niya Latson led FSU (20-5, 9-3 ACC) with 19 points, four rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocks. Latson briefly left the game with 8:40 left in the game with an apparent leg injury. She returned with 3:30 left.

Makayla Timpson added 16 points and five rebounds.

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Erin Howard tallied nine points and seven rebounds, Valencia Myers had 12 points and five rebounds and Maria Valenzuela had five points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

Howard hit two 3-pointers and now has at least one in 18 straight games.

“I feel like we did what we had to do for this game,” Latson said. “Execution-wise, I thought we did pretty well. We had some mishaps in the second half when they started to press. But we came together as a team and we knew what we had to do as a team.”

Jewel Spear led Wake Forest with 11 points but shot 3-for-14 from the field. Elise Williams added nine points.

Wake Forest shot just 26% (16 of 61) from the field, including a 1 for 17 second quarter, which helped the Seminoles build up a 35-17 halftime lead after outscoring Wake 22-4 in the second.

The Seminoles secured the first season sweep of the Demon Deacons since the 2018-19 season. They have scored at least 70 points except for the loss to Notre Dame on Jan. 26.

The win was the 20th for the Seminoles in the season. They last won 20 games during the 2019-20 season (24-8).

“I am very proud of this team effort,” FSU head coach Brooke Wyckoff said. “Everyone single person contributed scoring-wise, rebounding wise and most of all on the defensive end, which doesn’t show up in the stat sheet.”

Brianna “Snoop” Turnage did not play after suffering an apparent leg injury on Sunday against Duke.

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Suffocating defense

Wake Forest entered the game third in the ACC with 147 made 3-pointers. The Seminoles came in with the game plan to remove that from their playbook.

The Demon Deacons missed their first 14 3-point attempts, not making the first until around the five-minute mark in the third quarter. They finished the game 6-for-27 from beyond the arc.

In their past four games, the Seminoles have held each opponent to 26% shooting or worse. Wake Forest (26.2) joins Duke (26.4%), Notre Dame (35.3%) and Pittsburgh (15.8%) in teams the FSU defense has stepped up against. In total, teams are shooting just 71 for 277 (26%) in that span.

“Coach is always on us about defense and rebounding, so that has been our focal point these last few games,” Latson said. “Just going hard on both sides of the ball, but especially on define, because that’s what wins games and finishes games.”

Sara Bejedi only had four points and was 0 for 8 from the field, but she made a major impact on the defensive end of the ball, limiting the guards for Wake.

Spear had entered the game averaging 15.9 points on 39% shooting, but was limited by Bejedi’s defense.

“We didn’t let Jewel Spear get off,” Wyckoff said. “Sara did an excellent job on Jewel. She had her frustrated and that’s an amazing player right there. She had her frustrated, especially from the 3-point line.”

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Domination on the boards

Entering Thursday’s contest, the Seminoles’ best differential for rebounds was plus-10 against UNC (51-41). Against the Demon Deacons, they took it to another level.

FSU out-rebounded Wake Forest 51-32 and limited it to just six offensive rebounds. The Demon Deacons did not have a single second-chance point, where FSU held a 13-0 advantage.

Valenzuela led the way with 10 rebounds, while Howard had seven, Bejedi six and Timpson, Jazmine Massengill, Myers and Latson each added five.

All nine players who played finished with at least two rebounds.

“They finished plays with rebounds and we didn’t give up an offensive rebound in the second half, which is amazing and probably the highlight of my season so far,” Wyckoff said.

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Week off

The Seminoles will have the weekend off before returning to the court next Thursday against rival Miami on the road.

For Latson, the break is something much needed at this time of the year.

The Seminoles have six games left in the regular season and then the ACC Tournament, before a potential run in the NCAA Tournament.

"A week off is nice, very nice," Latson said. "We just need that before we get into the real deep part and crucial part of the season. It's going to be nice to kick back and relax a little bit."

Up next:

The Seminoles will get a much-needed week off, returning to the court to play rival Miami at 6 p.m. Thursday in Miami and then face No. 13 Virginia Tech on the road next Sunday, Feb. 12.

Reach Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports) and Instagram (tlhnolesports).

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU women's basketball: Seminoles dominate 2nd quarter in win over Wake Forest