LOUISVILLE, Ky. - (Seminoles.com) — The Florida State women’s basketball team (4-2, 3-2) was not able to pull off the upset on the road against No. 2 Louisville (12-0, 5-0), falling 84-56 Sunday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center. It was the most points allowed by the Noles this year, and the fewest points scored.
“We faced an excellent team today. They’re number two in the country for a reason and you saw why today,” FSU Interim Head Coach Brooke Wyckoff said. “We were happy to have the opportunity and we’ll learn a lot from it moving forward.”
Redshirt junior Bianca Jackson was the biggest highlight for the Noles, scoring a career-high 21 points while also grabbing four rebounds and a steal. This is Jackson’s fifth double-figure scoring game in six games this season.
Juniors Morgan Jones and Valencia Myers also had strong performances against Louisville. Jones was able to put up 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and Myers scored six points while also tying her career-high in assists with three while adding five rebounds.
With only eight total players available for the game due to COVID protocols, one of the biggest struggles for the Noles was generating points from the bench. They only had three points total from their bench players in this game compared to the 35 bench points scored by Louisville.
Florida State was also overmatched in many other facets as the Cardinals were able to outshoot the Noles from the field at 54%-40% and outrebound them at 38-25.
The Seminoles were down 11-6 early to start the game, but a 6-0 run coming out of a timeout pushed them back into the game. Jackson was the catalyst in the scoring run, as she scored nine of the Noles’ 17 points in the first quarter.
The Cardinals then took the lead and never looked back, ripping off an 18-8 run going into the second quarter and took a 43-31 lead over the Seminoles going into the half. FSU outscored Louisville 10-2 off of forced turnovers in the first half, but were struggling behind the three-point line, only shooting 38% compared to UL’s 67%.
“We didn’t have any kind of flow. We weren’t getting stops and then we weren’t able to score,” said Wyckoff about the game. “[Louisville] took advantage of it and went into halftime with a 12-point lead.”
The Noles were starting to get their groove back early in the third quarter after an and-one bucket from Myers and a three-pointer from junior Kourtney Weber, but freshman Hailey Van Lith for Louisville made back-to-back threes to keep FSU’s deficit at double digits.
The Cardinals kept that double digit lead for the rest of the game and ended up giving the Seminoles their biggest loss of the season after outscoring the Noles 41-25 in the second half.
Florida State will play another top-5 and undefeated opponent on Thursday, when the Noles welcome No. 3 NC State (10-0, 5-0) to Tallahassee. The game is set for an 8:00 p.m. tip on ACC Network.
