TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Seminoles.com) – A record-tying performance from junior Valencia Myers helped push the Florida State Seminoles (2-0, 1-0) to a dominant 69-51 win over Virginia (0-5, 0-2) on Sunday afternoon at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
The win is the Seminoles' fifth straight victory against the Cavaliers at home and their seventh win against them in their last eight meetings.
Myers was nothing short of dominant in today's game, as she posted a career-high nine blocks and tied the Seminoles' record for the most blocks in a game. She now holds the record with Jacinta Monroe, who had nine blocks against Georgia Tech in 2009.
Myers' nine blocks today also vaults her to the ninth-most career blocks in program history with 90 total blocks.
The Seminoles had four players post double-digits in points, with Myers leading the pack with 14 points and was one block shy of recording a double-double. Redshirt junior Bianca Jackson also had an outstanding day for the Seminoles with 13 points after putting up 14 in the game before against Florida.
Junior Kourtney Weber also posted 13 points and three rebounds in today's game, along with junior Morgan Jones recording 12 points, four rebounds, and two steals.
The second-half surge was the difference for the Seminoles in this game, as they outscored the Cavaliers, 41-23, coming out of the half. The Noles once again outrebounded their opponent by a wide margin at 39-25. They also recorded a better field goal percentage at 47%-31% and a better free throw percentage at 79%-60%.
The Seminoles picked up where they left off two weeks ago, as they took an early 7-0 lead to start the game against the Cavaliers. The first quarter was also messy for both teams with nine combined turnovers in the first five minutes of the game and 15 total turnovers in the first quarter.
The turnover woes continued for Florida State in the second quarter, as Virginia went on a scoring run of their own to take an 18-15 lead after being down by five earlier in the game. Jackson was able to stop the bleeding for the Seminoles with a three-pointer to put both teams at 18 apiece. The scoring went back and forth evenly for the rest of the second quarter with the score knotted up 28-28 at the half.
Virginia took an early lead to start the second half, but a pair of layups and a three-pointer by Weber helped give FSU a 43-36 lead. The Seminoles finished the third quarter strong by outrebounding UVA 15-5 and making their last four field-goal attempts to take a 10-point lead over the Cavs.
Florida State went on another scoring run to start the fourth quarter and never looked back. Back-to-back and-one buckets from Jones and sophomore Sara Bejedi helped spark 15 straight points early in the fourth and put the game away for the Seminoles.
Florida State returns to conference play with a newly-scheduled matchup at Clemson on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Littlejohn Coliseum.
