FSU women crush Wake Forest

The (5) Florida State Seminoles (23-2, 11-1 ACC) pounded the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (14-10, 5-6 ACC) 102-60 tonight in Tallahassee

Pre Game

Wake Forest is one of the best rebounding teams in the ACC. The Deacons average 42 rebounds a game which leads the conference. They have an impact player in 6'1 senior forward Milan Quinn. Quinn averages a double-double (11.6pts, 10.3reb). The other players to watch are 6'3 junior Elisa Penna (13.4pts, 6.0reb), 5'10 junior guard Ariel Stephenson (13.6pts, 4.3reb), and 5'9 senior guard Amber Campbell (13.0pts, 3.2reb).

Now for the bad news. Besides rebounding, there isn't anything else that Wake does all that well. Nationally they are only so-so offensively (.898 OPPP 181st nationally) and defensively (.876 DPPP 136th nationally). They don't shoot well (ACC 12th in FG%) or defend well (ACC 10th in DFG%). They turn the ball over too much (ACC 14th in turnover margin). Wake Forest is also a very thin team as all of the starters play over 30 minutes a game and only one other player (Kortni Simmons) averages more than 13 minutes a game. Unfortunately for Wake Simmons has only played eight games this year.

Game Recap

The Noles busted out to an 11-2 lead capped by a three point play from Shakayla Thomas. After Elisa Penna answered with a jumper for Wake the teams mostly traded baskets. Wake stayed relatively close until FSU managed to end the quarter with a 7-2 run to take a 22-9 lead.

Early in the second quarter FSU hit the Deacons with a 15-0 run to break the game open and take a 39-13 lead. Wake had a tough time with turnovers for the game and that was especially true in this stretch. Making matters worse was the fact that there were many live ball turnovers mixed in so that the Noles had several open break-away layups. Wake was never able to recover from this brutal stretch. For the rest of the game the Demon Deacons would never get closer than 20 points en route to the 102-60 final pasting.

FSU was led by Shakayla Thomas with 23 points. Brittany Brown played her customary strong game almost notching a triple-double with 12 points, 10 boards, 7 assists and only one turnover.

Florida State outrebounded Wake 35-28 and forced 26 Deacon turnovers while committing only 11 themselves.

Post Game

FSU is an elite team and they treated the Deacons the way an elite team should. Wake was never really in this game from the time the Noles started on the 11-2 run. The Seminoles are still playing without the services of freshmen Nicole Ekhomu and Nausia Woolfolk as they recover from injuries. However, FSU still has a nice eight player rotation as Ama Degbeon has earned the trust of the coaches and they are rewarding her with more minutes. She played 16 tonight and responded with 11 points.

Next Game

The Noles will play their last out of conference regular season game on Monday and it is a huge one. (11) Texas (19-4, 13-0 Big 12) will visit the TLCCC on Monday, Feb 13th at 7pm. The game will be televised on ESPN 2. Texas is coming off of a huge 85-79 win at (2) Baylor last Tuesday. While winning its 17th consecutive game, Texas ended the Lady Bears' 21-game winning streak and handed them their first home loss in nearly three years. To make it even more impressive, Texas never trailed in the game. Texas will play Kansas on Saturday before traveling to Tallahassee. We will have more on this game soon.