Florida State women roll over Boston College

The (6) Florida State Seminoles (21-2, 9-1 ACC) returned to the court with a 85-53 beatdown of the Boston College Eagles (8-15, 1-9 ACC).

Pre Game

Boston College is coached by Erik Johnson who is in his fourth year at Chestnut Hill. Johnson guided the Eagles to five ACC wins last year but this year isn't shaping up as well. BC has only one ACC win (Clemson) this year. It doesn't take a genius to diagnose BC's problem. The Eagles suffer from a talent disadvantage against the great majority of teams in the ACC. This really shows up in their offense. BC is 250th in the nation in offensive points per possession (.849). They are a bit better in DPPP checking in at .871 which is 126th nationally. They are last in the ACC in scoring offense and next to last in scoring margin. FSU is 6th in OPPP (1.09) and 4th in DPPP (.746).

The first name on the BC scouting report is 6'4 center Mariella Fasoula who hails from Athens, Greece. Fasoula (16.5pts, 7.5reb) is a bit of a throwback in the mold of NBA Hall of Famer Kevin McHale with her wide repertoire of post moves. The sophomore uses her size well to get post position and she displays nice footwork along with a variety of moves including up and unders and scoop shots. Senior Kelly Hughes is BC's only other double digit scorer at 11.9. The 5'11 guard also chips in 4.2 boards a game.

Game Recap

FSU jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead as Shakayla Thomas notched four early points. BC fought back to tie the game at seven on a Fasoula layup. From there FSU went on an 8-2 run to take a 15-9 lead. After that the two teams mostly traded baskets until Maria Conde was fouled on a jumper with .5 seconds left in the quarter. She made the first one and missed the second but Ama Degbeon made a miraculous tip in over a BC defender to give the Noles a 25-13 lead to end the quarter.

In the second quarter the Seminoles blew the game open with a 12-2 run that was capped by an Ivey Slaughter layup. FSU had a 41-17 lead at that point. They took a 43-21 lead into halftime. The Eagles refused to quit but they would never cut the lead closer than 20 for the rest of the game.

Thomas lead the Seminoles with 20 points, five rebounds and five steals. Chatrice White continued her strong play with a 13 point, 11 rebound double-double. Fasoula led the Eagles with 14 points.

FSU struggled a bit from behind the arc shooting 3-12 but made up for it by dominating BC on the boards to the tune of 43-25. FSU also only had nine turnovers to BC's 18.

Outside of Leticia Romero missing the UConn game with a strained thigh, the Noles have been relatively lucky this year with injuries. However, tonight Nicole Ekhomu stayed in Tallahassee nursing a head injury and Nausia Woolfolk missed her fourth game with a foot injury although she did make the trip to Chestnut Hill.

Off the Court

Florida State is an elite team nationally and Boston College obviously isn't. The talent gap is significant. Therefore games like this will obviously not determine FSU's ultimate fate this year. However, it is encouraging to see the Noles give a good effort and get a win in the fashion that they should. Sagarin had FSU as 28 point favorites and they won by 32.

Ama Degbeon is a player that seems to be making strides. She has had a couple of nice games lately. The test for her will be whether she can keep it going against the top teams in the ACC and nationally.

FSU's win streak is now at eight games which is the longest in the ACC this year.

Next Game

The Noles return home to take on the (16) Miami Hurricanes (17-5, 6-4 ACC) at 7pm on Monday, Feb 6th. Miami defeated Wake Forest tonight in Winston-Salem 79-56. Sagarin has FSU as 17 point favorites.