The Florida State women’s basketball team was back in Tallahassee on Thursday for a matchup against struggling Pittsburgh. The Seminoles would be without the services of junior superstar guard Ta’Niya Latson and senior guard O’Mariah Gordon on the night.

After starting slowly, as this team is prone to do, FSU found its footing in the third quarter and pulled away to defeat the Panthers 69-55.

“It’s about finding a way in February, no matter,” FSU coach Brooke Wyckoff said. “I knew we would grow today and it’s just credit to the players. They never wavered, they never flinched, they rolled with whatever happened, just keep believing and stay together.”

Latson and Gordon are in the "injury protocol," Wyckoff said. Without them, the Seminoles leaned on senior forward Makayla Timpson, who poured in 20 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked seven shots. Timpson already has a career program record for double-doubles, but the talented senior added her name to another school record — this time blocks in a season. With three games remaining, Timpson will look to add more to her now 88 blocks in 2024-25.

“I’m just grateful,” Timpson said. “I’m grateful to be able to do it here with this team and my coach right here. They trust me to do a lot of things that I want to accomplish in my career.”

As the 1st quarter started, both teams had a difficult time getting shots to go in the basket and there was a general sloppy display of basketball. With the Seminoles being without two of their main guards in the backcourt, junior guard Sydney Bowles and redshirt sophomore guard Raiane Dias Dos Santos stepped in their places.

When the buzzer sounded at the end of the 1st quarter, the score was tied at a measly 12.

The second quarter was much of the same sloppy play from Florida State and, at one point in the quarter, the Panthers led 19-14 with seven minutes and 39 seconds until halftime. Junior guard Amaya Bonner was a nice spark off the bench, as her workload and responsibilities for this game were not what she was used to, but she stepped up and gave the Seminoles solid minutes. Bonner finished with nine points and four rebounds.

FSU turned up its defensive pressure as the game inched closer to halftime. Timpson was able to get a steal and go the length of the floor for an easy layup to give the ’Noles the lead 21-19 with four minutes and three seconds to go until halftime. Timpson was able to start scoring in the paint consistently as the Panthers had no answer for her down the stretch of the half.

As the lead was getting comfortable, the Seminoles got lazy. With one minute and seven seconds to go, Panthers guard Mikayla Johnson buried a 3-pointer to cut the lead to two and would stay that way as the two teams headed into the locker room with Florida State leading 28-26.

The third quarter was the Seminoles best scoring output for the game as they came up with 21 points to head into the fourth quarter with a 49-42 lead. The spark in the third quarter was led by sharp-shooting sophomore guard Carla Viegas. The sophomore buried back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 47-40 with two minutes and 20 seconds left in the third quarter. It was her fourth 3-pointer of the game and would finish going 5-9 from 3-point range and finished with 15 points.

“All of our players have the green light,” Wyckoff said. “And for Carla, her gift is that it doesn’t matter. It’s hard to get her the ball because the defense knows and so these guys did a great job finding her. She’s grown so much and can be on the court for that long and get those shots off when she’s playing great defense.”

FSU was able to remain steady for the rest of the game, not allowing the Panthers to get comfortable and would cruise to their 21st win of the season.

The Seminoles will hit the road as they enter the home stretch of the regular season, going to Atlanta on Sunday to take on Georgia Tech. FSU then will travel to No. 1 Notre Dame on Feb. 27.

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