A month after the Miami women’s basketball team was crushed by Florida State up in Tallahassee, UM had its chance for revenge.
The Hurricanes lost to the Seminoles, 86-65, on Jan. 13, but hosted their archrival on Sunday afternoon at the BankUnited Center in the return game. However, Miami was unable to return the favor, falling 93-78.
“We lost to a very, very, very good basketball team tonight, who did a great job missing a couple players too,” Miami head coach Katie Meier said. “I mean, that was a very well-played game by Florida State.”
For the No. 19 Seminoles, Sunday was the sixth time this season they scored over 90 points. They were able to put up that lofty total despite playing without redshirt senior Chastity Clayton and senior forward Chelsea Davis, both of whom average over 10 points per game.
Even without Clayton and Davis, Florida State (19-4, 9-3 ACC) still had six players post double-figure scoring totals. Senior Leonor Rodriguez led the way with 21 points to go along with seven assists. Redshirt senior Alexa Deluzio added 20 points of her own.
“Six players in double figures, if that’s right, that’s really hard to game plan against and I thought they did a really, really nice job of moving the basketball, sharing the basketball,” Meier said. “And every time one defense would work, it would only work for two or three possessions and then they would figure it out and hit a huge shot by somebody that doesn’t usually hit those shots.”
Senior Morgan Stroman was the top scorer for Miami (16-8, 7-6 ACC), posting 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field.
Fellow senior Shawnice “Pepper” Wilson had 12 points, despite playing just 17 minutes. She scored five points in the game’s first 66 seconds and was held scoreless until halftime, before scoring four more points in the first 68 seconds of the second half.
Katie Meier talked about Wilson’s play and the decision to give her fairly limited minutes after strong starts to both halves.
“Well, they were very small and so when Pepper was fresh, I think she was great,” Meier said, “but they were running, they were playing four guards a lot and it was really—and the fifth is an athlete that can run all over the court too. So it was a matter of making sure when Pepper was in that she got a point per minute and that was a huge part of the game plan, is go to her, keep her fresh, bring her out, bring her back in, but when she was in we specifically wanted to go to her.”
Miami played well offensively and shot 47.9 percent from the field, but the Canes missed numerous layups throughout the game.
The Hurricanes did open play by scoring on their first three possessions to take a 7-4 lead, but FSU responded with a 21-3 run and led by 15 with 8:10 to go until the half.
Miami outscored the Seminoles by seven the rest of the half, with freshman Caprice Dennis hitting a 3-pointer in the final seconds to cut the deficit to 39-31 entering the intermission.
UM continued to chip away at the start of the second half and made it a six-point game, 43-37, with 17:57 to play.
Then, the Seminoles took back control of the game and extended their lead to 16 with 9:46 remaining. Miami was unable to get the deficit back to single-digits from that point forward.
The Hurricanes will be back on the hardwood on Sunday, Jan. 17 at 2:05 p.m. when they host Boston College at the BankUnited Center.