Women’s basketball at Florida State is on the cusp of a decisive victory for first-year head coach Brooke Wyckoff.
The Seminoles defeated No. 13 North Carolina 78-71 on Thursday to earn their first win over a ranked opponent in the 2022-23 season.
FSU (13-2, 2-0 ACC) outscored the Tar Heels (9-3, 0-1) by 13 points in the second half to overcome a 6-point halftime deficit.
The win was the Seminoles’ highest-ranked victory since a 68–59 win over No. 2 Louisville on February 21, 2021 under interim head coach Wyckoff.
For players, it was a validation of who they were.
FSU alumnus Taylor O’Brien said, “It shows our potential and shows what kind of team we are.” I think it shows all that we’ve been preaching, it’s just showing how it helps us all play together during the game.
“I think it also gives us a lot of fire. We can hang around here. We will go so that we can reach our full potential…a really, really good thing.”
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The Seminoles will look to keep the ball rolling against Georgia Tech (9-4, 0-2) in another ACC road game at Atlanta’s McCamish Pavilion.
FSU leads the series 28-25, and it will be the 54th meeting between the two teams. Yellow The Seminoles’ last win over his jacket was on March 3, 2019, in a 64–55 win.
They are looking to start 3-0 in the ACC for the first time since the 2008-09 season, when they started 5-0 against the conference.
Last season, the Seminoles and Yellow Jackets split the season series, with GT winning 68-64 (January 13) in Atlanta and FSU winning 65-63 in OT (February 24) in Tallahassee. did.
FSU will enter Sunday as the sixth-highest scoring team in the nation, averaging 87.2 points per game. The Yellow Jackets are 28th in the nation and he can score 55.5 points per game, so that will be a test.
“As always, we expect a fight,” Wyckoff said. “[Defense]is what they’ve been taking their hats off to in the last few years. Their success comes from defense.”
Freshman guard Tanya Latson had 21 points, 6 assists and 8 rebounds in the win over the Tar Heels. He scored just 5 points on 1-of-6 shooting in the first half, but scored 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting in the second half.
The Miami native leads the ACC with an average of 24.7 points per game.
“Tanya had some ‘fighting’ games in the first half,” Wyckoff said. “And she’s going to have her wonderful second half. It’s nothing new to her. She’s a credit to who she is, her maturity, her level of intelligence.”
“She’ll eventually figure it out and figure out what she’s good at, how to do the scores.”
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Game information
Who: Florida State (13-2, 2-0 ACC) vs. Georgia Tech (9-4, 0-2)
when and where: Sunday, 2:00 p.m.McCamish Pavilion, Atlanta
tv set: ACC Network Extra
Contact Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow @Ehsan_Kassim on Twitter. You can also follow our articles on Facebook (NoleSports) and Instagram (tlhnolesports).
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