The Virginia women’s basketball team (13-7, 3-3 ACC) fell 70-48 at No. 14 Florida State (15-4, 5-1 ACC) on Thursday (Jan. 21) at the Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee, Fla.
Florida State led 30-23 at halftime but outscored the Cavaliers 40-25 in the second half. The Seminoles scored 50 of their 70 points in the paint, while the Cavaliers scored 18.
“We were just trying to battle and I thought we hung in there until mid-way through the third quarter, then Florida State just took over,” said Virginia head coach Joanne Boyle. “We had a hard time scoring and Florida State was able to score in transition off their rebounds. We just didn’t have a flow. I thought we were tired and just started shooting shots instead of trying to get to the rim. It really hurt us when FSU went to the zone. That was when we stopped scoring.”
Junior Breyana Mason (Woodbridge, Va.) scored 15 points with three assists to lead the Cavaliers. Florida State’s Shakayla Thomas came off the bench to score 20 points on 10-of-13 shooting.
After a close start to the game, Florida State used a three-pointer from Brittany Brown to take a 17-10 lead with less than a minute remaining in the quarter. Mason hit a jumper in the final 30 seconds to make it a 17-12 game going into the second quarter.
Florida State started the second period with a layup from Kai James, building up a nine-point lead, 28-19, with three minutes left in the half, but a free throw from sophomore Lauren Moses (Mount Holly, N.J.) followed by a three from Mason with just over a minute left in the half cut the deficit back to five, 28-23, until a layup by Ama Degbeon with 30 seconds left sent the Seminoles into the break with a 30-23 advantage.
Virginia’s defense turned up the pressure to start the second half, forcing three turnovers in a span of2:31 early in the first half. Sophomore Mikayla Venson (Arlington, Va.) hit a jumper from just inside the arc with 6:20 remaining in the third to make it 34-29, but FSU answered with an 8-0 run to expand its lead to 42-31. Brown grabbed a steal in the final seconds of the third quarter, getting the ball ahead to Thomas who scored a layup on the fastbreak right before the buzzer to make it a 48-33 game heading into the fourth quarter.
Florida State outscored the Cavaliers 22-15 in the final period to close out the game and extend its home win-streak to 28 games.
The Seminoles outrebounded the Cavaliers 42 to 26 after jumping out to a 15-5 edge in the first quarter.
Florida State went 11-of-19 from the free throw line, going 7-of-7 in the second half after starting the game 4-of-12. Virginia was 5-of-9 from the line.
The two teams combined to go 6-of-30 from three-point range.
Virginia will be back in action at John Paul Jones Arena on Sunday, Jan. 24, hosting Pittsburgh at 1 p.m., a game that will be televised on the ACC Regional Sports Networks.
Single-game ticket prices for all home games are $10 for Reserved seating, $8 for adult General Admission and $6 for youth (18 & under), senior (60 & over) and UVA faculty/staff General Admission. Fans may purchase home game tickets through the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office online at VirginiaSports.com, by phone and in person. The Virginia Athletics Ticket Office is located in Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium and openMonday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Telephone purchases can be made by calling 1-800-542-UVA1 (8821) or locally at 434-924-UVA1 (8821).
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Chris Graham
