FSU Women’s Basketball Team Struggles But Advances to Elite 8

The FSU Women’s Basketball Team did not face much adversity in the first 2 rounds of the NCAA Tournament but that was more than made up for in Friday night’s Sweet 16 matchup against the Arizona State Sun Devils, winning a close one over ASU by a score of 66-65.

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The Sun Devils and Seminoles played a closely contested game for the majority of the first half before FSU ended the 1st half on a 11-2 run and Florida State held the half time lead 33-22. However, Arizona State was far from done, starting the 2nd half on a 22-11 run tying the game at 44 with 11:34 left in the game. The game was neck and neck down the stretch but the ‘Noles never fully gave up the lead to the Sun Devils. Although FSU never led by more than 2 possessions in the final 10 minutes of the game, they never trailed in the 2nd half and were tied at 3 different points in the half. In the end, a defensive stand was the difference as Senior Maegan Conwright stole the ball from ASU’s Peace Amukamara with 1 second left on the game clock, wrapping up the game.

For the Seminoles, it was easily their most sloppy game offensively in quite some time as they committed 20 turnovers with each starter committing at least 2. Across the board stat-wise, the teams were nearly the same. with very similar margins in turnovers, blocks, steals, assists, rebounfs (FSU outrebounded ASU by just 4), and shooting percentage where ASU shot 48.8% and FSU did just marginally better, shooting 49.1%. A major disadvantage that FSU had to overcome was in free throw percentage. ASU hit 18 of their 22 free throws, good for 81.8%. Meanwhile, FSU took significantly less free throws and hit a worse percentage of them, going 7 of 12, good for 58.3%.

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Leticia Romero had arguably her best game of the season as she led all Seminoles with 21 points, her FSU career-high, on 10 of 16 shooting as well as 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals. Down the stretch of the game, Romero seemed to be the player who hit a big shot whenever the Seminoles needed one, scoring 10 of her points in the final 6:18 of the game. Adut Bulgak also had a big game for Florida State as she scored 15 points on 5-7 shooting and added 7 rebounds, moving ever closer to the FSU single-season record for rebounds, just 10 off of the mark now. Senior Maegan Conwright was the 3rd double digit scorer for the ‘Noles as she added 11 points, including a pair of 3s.

With the win, Florida State advances to just their 2nd Elite 8 in program history, the first since 2010 when they advanced to the Elite 8 before being pummeled by perennial powerhouse UConn 90-50. The Seminoles next play on Sunday afternoon at 12 PM when they face the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. With a win there, FSU would advance to the first Final 4 appearance in program history.