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Published Feb 14, 2025
FSU women's hoops has sluggish start, loses to Louisville
Justin Hood
Osceola writer

The Florida State women’s basketball team was back at the Donald L. Tucker Center on Thursday night to face Louisville. The Seminoles were looking to shake off the bad taste in their mouth after a loss to NC State at home.

FSU couldn’t shake it off on Thursday night as they lost 83-69. The Seminoles currently sit at 19-6 overall, 9-4 ACC.

“Obviously disappointed because of the loss, but there’s so much that I’m really positive about," FSU coach Brooke Wyckoff said. “In terms of how we played tonight, the first quarter was really tough for us. Turned it over too much, gave up too many offensive rebounds in the first quarter, but I thought we got back to playing the way we play on both ends of the floor for a lot of the game.”

The game started with Louisville coming out hot in the first quarter and looked to be the more engaged team. They were faster, stronger and fought for everything. They ran their offense well and did whatever they wanted to do. The Seminoles on the other hand were ice cold and only made four field goals in the 1st quarter, to include going 0 for 7 from 3-point range.

Louisville led 25-12 at the end of the 1st quarter with all of the momentum on the Cardinals' side. Florida State was better in the second quarter, but it wasn’t much as they only were able to put 16 points on the scoreboard. The Seminoles continued to struggle from 3-point range by going 1 of 6. FSU had more than a few wide-open looks, only to see them not hit the rim at all on a few occasions.

The ’Noles also struggled from the free-throw line. Junior guard Ta’Niya Latson started the quarter with a nice drive to the basket where she was fouled as she made the basket. It was a nice way to start the quarter, but she uncharacteristically missed the and-one free throw. Florida State went 1 of 3 at the line in the second quarter and ended up only shooting 76.9% on the night.

The Cardinals continued their momentum and played the same way they did in the first quarter, taking a commanding 44-28 lead at the half.

The second half was a little bit better, but the Seminoles had dug themselves too deep of a hole to get out of.

“The second half, what we were able to do was great,” Wyckoff said. “Only turned it over twice, didn’t give up too many boards and didn’t allow second-chance points.”

Louisville was steady in their game during the second half and continued their stellar play. FSU’s main three scoring options — Latson, senior guard O’Mariah Gordon and senior forward Makayla Timpson — combined for 54 of the teams 69 points. Timpson, who is usually good for a double-double, only finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. Louisville simply was better on the boards and ended up pulling in 47, to the Seminoles' 34. Gordon ended the night with only 10 points, while Latson led all scorers with 29.

“I don’t like moral victories at all,” Wyckoff said. “But I’m going to take how I feel about who we were today and move forward with it in a positive way.”

Longtime coach Sue Semrau was honored at halftime and a plethora of shirts with her face on it were distributed in the stands. Semrau is the winningest coach in program history and gave an emotional speech at halftime after she was introduced by athletic director Michael Alford.

Semrau choked up a few times and you could see the admiration for the legendary coach by the crowd, who were hanging on every word that came out of Semrau’s mouth.

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The Seminoles will look to end their losing streak when they travel to Miami on Sunday to take on the Hurricanes.

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