No. 24 FSU women’s basketball misses a golden opportunity at no. 7 Notre Dame

Jan 27, 2023 - 3:27 AM

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No. 24 Florida State (18-5, 7-3 ACC) fell to no. 7 Notre Dame (17-2, 8-1 ACC) by a 70-47 score tonight in South Bend, IN.

Game Recap

Both teams struggled offensively in the first quarter. However, FSU scored the last 10 points in the quarter to take a 12-7 lead into the second quarter. The Seminoles stretched the lead to 16-7. The Irish responded with a 15-7 run to end the half but Florida State still enjoyed a 23-22 lead at halftime.

Notre Dame blew the game open in the third quarter. The Irish outscored FSU 27-10 in the quarter. ND carved up the Seminole defense leading to layups. The Irish even (uncharacteristically) hit threes going 3-7 from deep in the quarter. Florida State, on the other hand, continued the ice cold shooting going 3-13 in the quarter. On top of that FSU allowed the Irish to get offensive rebounds even when the defense forced missed shots. ND took full advantage finishing the third quarter with a 49-33 lead.

The Seminoles could never make a run in the fourth quarter and ND cruised to the 70-47 victory.

Post Game

Makayla Timpson led FSU with 13 points and 11 boards. No other Seminole finished in double digits.

This was by far Florida State’s lowest scoring game of the year. The previous low was 71 in the loss to Boston College.

Florida State simply couldn’t shoot the basketball in this game. The Noles were 16-59 (27.1% FG) and 5-25 (20% 3PT) for the game.

The other huge stat in the game was the offensive rebounding. FSU did a good job in the first half keeping the Irish off the boards but that all changed in the second half. FSU had only 12 second half rebounds while the Irish had 28 and 16 of them were offensive. Florida State simply can’t let a team as good as Notre Dame beat them up on the glass especially if the Noles are going to shoot this poorly.

This loss was disappointing for a couple of reasons. First, Florida State didn’t play Florida State basketball tonight. The Irish deserve some credit for that as FSU really struggled against ND’s zone. For the first time this year we saw Florida State really have issues with an opponent’s size. Secondly, FSU never made a run in the second half. A team as good as Florida State should have at least put together 6-10 straight points to put some pressure on the Irish but it just didn’t happen.

Nevertheless, this loss doesn’t really hurt that much from a post season perspective as it was on the road against a top 10 team. If the Noles can quickly put this game behind them and get a result against Duke at home this will still have been a successful week. We will see if Florida State can seize the opportunity.

Next Game

Florida State will host #16 Duke (18-2, 8-1 ACC) on Sunday. The game will tip at 2pm and will be broadcast on the ACC Network. Florida State will honor former Coach Sue Semrau before the game.