TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Seminoles.com) — Despite out-rebounding a sizeable and physical Georgia Tech team on Thursday night, the Florida State Women’s Basketball team endured its first home loss of the season after going down, 62-48, at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
“They play that big lineup with (Lorela) Cubaj and (Nerea) Hermosa and they attacked that right away,” FSU Interim Head Coach Brooke Wyckoff said. “We didn’t have many answers for it. They shot really well and were deliberate. Their two bigs had 14 points each and that was an issue for us.”
The Yellow Jackets (13-5, 11-4) shot 57.1 percent from the floor, the highest FSU has allowed this season. After playing a competitive opening quarter where they trailed 17-16, the Seminoles (8-6, 7-6) were hurt by the middle quarters where they were out-scored 31-14 and went through a few scoring droughts against Georgia Tech’s defense.
Redshirt junior point guard Bianca Jackson led FSU with 13 points and had five assists to four turnovers. She jump-started the Seminoles with eight first-quarter points. Her 13 points mark her 11th game in double figures, including her fifth straight.
“She’s had a huge load to carry for us,” Wyckoff said of Jackson. “She’s gotten better at understanding the flow of the game, understanding how to get her teammates the ball, attacking off ball screens is huge – she’s got to be the one, the ball usually comes back to her. Her aggressiveness and being able to read, being able to come off and score or make a great pass, she’s getting better.”
In both games this season, FSU has mustered just one double-figure scorer against the Yellow Jackets. Juniors Kourtney Weber and Morgan Jones each chipped in with seven points apiece, while Savannah Wilkinson came off the bench to add six. Wilkinson went 3-of-3 from the floor in 15:46 off the bench, generating a +4 plus-minus ratio.
FSU out-scored Georgia Tech 18-14 in the final frame. It went 20-of-62 (32.3 percent) from the floor, taking 20 more shots than Georgia Tech and its patient offense. The Seminoles were able to out-score Georgia Tech 19-6 in second-chance points, but the Yellow Jackets capitalized on 12 FSU turnovers with 16 points.
Georgia Tech’s Kierra Fletcher added 11 points to mark three double-figure scorers. The Yellow Jackets doubled up the amount of free throws attempts from FSU, going 10-of-18 while the Seminoles went 4-of-9.
“Obviously, they have two big girls in the paint. They’re very good defensively,” Jones added. “They’re aggressive. They play super hard, so it’s hard to sometimes finish our shots on that. They’ve got tall trees in the paint and it’s hard to maneuver around that. They’re a very disruptive team, and that’s kind of what we got lost in. We were making small mistakes, and by the time it was the end of the game it was too late.”
Florida State re-groups to host Louisville at the recently changed time of 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Tucker Center. The game will air on ACC Network Extra.
