TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Jan. 16) – The Florida State Seminoles ended their four-game losing streak and improved to 8-7 overall, 1-4 in the ACC today with a 93-64 victory over Georgia Tech (10-6, 3-4), who was coming off an upset of No. 12 North Carolina, 55-44, at home on Thursday. FSU’s April Traylor led the scoring with 22 points and eight assists in the 29-point win. Regina Tate led Georgia Tech with 16 points, tying her season-high mark.
“This has been a long time coming for us,” FSU Head Coach Sue Semrau said.
Georgia Tech opened the scoring on a Jaime Kruppa three-pointer 1:44 into the game, but the Seminoles responded with a Traylor lay-up and a Katelyn Vujas free throw to tie the game at 3-3 with 16:52 remaining. Brooke Wyckoff’s trey gave the Noles the lead for the remainder of not only the half, but the game. The Yellow Jackets closed their deficit to one at 6-5 on Kruppa’s two free throws with 15:51 remaining, but that would be the closest they came to the Tribe. Molly Beal’s three-pointer at 10:34 put the Noles ahead by nine at 23-14 and began a 7-1 run for the Noles to put them ahead with their largest lead of the half at 30-15 with 5:11 remaining. The Yellow Jackets Candice McCallum put in two free throws to close the lead to 13, but Traylor responded with a driving lay-up to bring back the 15 point lead at 32-17 with 4:39 remaining. The rattled Yellow Jackets scored 12 points to FSU’s seven before the half, but were unable to catch the Noles.
Tate put them within seven points twice before the half, at 34-27 with 1:09 remaining and again at 36-29 with 0:43 remaining, but Beal responded with another trey 22 seconds before the half to seal the lead at 39-29. Traylor led with 10 points and six assists while Levys Torres grabbed five rebounds for the Tribe. Kruppa led the Yellow Jackets with nine points on the half. She also notched four of four free throw’s on the Yellow Jacket’s 10 of 12 performance from the line.
Second half action looked a lot like the first, with the Yellow Jackets playing a game of catch up. The Noles finished the game with their largest lead of the game, 29 points, on a Lakesha Springle lay-up. The Yellow Jackets were able to close the lead to 10 points once at 45-35 on a Tate lay-up with 17:53 remaining, but the Noles ensured that the score would never be closer, scoring 48 points to the Yellow Jacket’s 29 during the remainder of the game. They improved their lead to 19 on an Angela Sutton jumper at 59-40 with 12:26 remaining and repeated the feat four times before going up by 24 on Vujas’ free throw with 4:28 remaining for a 76-52 score. Lako Brown’s trey with 1:46 left put the Noles ahead by 27 at 85-58, a margin they would maintain two more times.
“Compliments to FSU,” Georgia Tech’s Agnus Berenato said. “They played great and I’m not surprised. They were ready to break or break out. Every team in the ACC is scared of them and it just happened to be us that got it. I am proud of our post players. Regina Tate has been struggling and she broke out today.”
