Florida State will look to build on second-round exit next season

As the team stood in a tight circle, head coach Brooke Wyckoff told her team how much she believes in them. “I want them always, no matter [what], to just believe in themselves,” she said. “And [I wanted] to let them know how much I believe in them, how proud I was of them, how much I love them.”

Though the team was on the road, it finished its season the way it does every home game, singing the fight song with the Florida State pep band, Seminole Sound. 

When the fight song was finished, several Florida State players embraced and graduate student forward Malea Williams held up heart hands to the pep band that continued cheering for the team as it walked off the court towards the locker room.  

“Those students in the band, the cheerleaders, they put in so much work,” Wyckoff said. “They have been on the road with us. They travel. I mean, they give their all, not just in this tournament, but all season long. … [I]t was just great to have that moment with them, [to] be able to do that and really thank them, because they’re a special part of what we do.”

The game started quickly; Florida State won the tip and within five seconds junior guard Ta’Niya Latson made a layup. Latson would go on to score the first 12 points of the game for the Seminoles.

At halftime, Florida State trailed 50-49 but was outscored 31-6 in the third quarter and 51-22 in the second half as a whole. 

As a team, Florida State went 3-for-17 from the floor and 0-for-6 from behind the arc in the third quarter. The team also turned the ball over six times — more than half of its season average (11.1 turnovers per game, fifth in Division I). 

The Tigers capitalized, going 10-for-17 from the floor, making all 10 free throw attempts and preventing the Seminoles from scoring for the final 6:31 of the quarter. 

“[LSU] came out of halftime on a mission,” Wyckoff said. “We couldn’t get a couple stops, and then the ball wouldn’t go in for us. And good teams are gonna prey on that. They’re gonna keep going … We just couldn’t find a way to break the run.” 

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After scoring 23 points in the first half, Latson scored 7 points and was 3-for-11 from the floor (1-for-4 from behind the arc) and did not get to the free throw line in the second half.

LSU head coach Kim Mulkey credited the slight change in how the team guarded Latson with the Tigers’s defensive success in the third quarter.  

“Instead of fighting to get over the screen that they were setting at the top, go under. She makes threes, we live with it. And I don’t know that she made a lot,” Mulkey said. “We just couldn’t keep her out of the paint and got in foul trouble because we couldn’t keep her in front of us and gave up the right hand drive in the first half. So just completely get on her right hand when she uses that screen, go under and take your chances that she’s gonna miss more threes than she does free throws.”

In the second half, Wyckoff talked to her team about belief, the same message she echoed after the game. 

“The ball’s not going in for us, but that doesn’t change who you are as a player,” she recalled saying. “‘That doesn’t change the belief that you should have in yourself, in each other, and what we believe.’ And so that’s what I’m taking from this game. That’s what I’m hoping that they take — is just to get a glimpse of how good they are and can be, and to never, ever … doubt any of that no matter [what].”

Latson’s 30 points helped her set the program’s single-season scoring record with 731 points this season. She also had seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. Senior forward Makayla Timpson recorded 14 points, nine rebounds, one steal and two blocks, while junior guard Sydney Bowles added 10 points, four rebounds and two assists. 

The loss marks the end of Timpson’s college career. “Coming from a small town and being able to shine bright at this university, it just meant a lot,” she said. “And I’m just blessed. And I’m just grateful for my whole four years here.”

Timpson has meant a lot to Latson over the last three seasons. “I’m gonna cherish every moment we’ve had together,” Latson said. “We hang out a lot outside of the court, me, her and [O’Mariah Gordon]. So, I’m just gonna miss them a lot. They were like sisters to me, so I’m gonna cherish this for, you know, a lifetime.” 

During the postgame press conference, Latson was already prepared to get back to work with the lessons she learned from the game: getting her teammates involved, reducing her turnovers, working on her 3-point shot after going 2-for-10, and continuing to grow as a leader. 

While Latson takes on a large offensive role and plays at a very fast pace, Wyckoff appreciates how much Latson wants to continue to improve the non-scoring facets of her game.  

“She’s never satisfied,” Wyckoff said. “She really took a step this year, statistically, in rebounding and steals, just her attention to the defensive end. And so that’s what I know she wants. She does not see a limit on what she can do. So yeah, 30 points tonight in only 30 minutes is pretty freaking good. But she’s not satisfied … And so I know that we’ll continue to see her just build in all those other areas as well, statistically. She can do it.” 

Florida State’s 94-59 win over No. 11 seed George Mason on March 22 was the team’s first win in the NCAA Tournament since 2019 and the first under Wyckoff. The Seminoles’s 24 wins this season are also the most since Wyckoff took over. 

Having seen it as a player and a coach, Wyckoff knows that making an NCAA Tournament run requires a building process. 

She looks forward to next season, when the returners can build off of this season’s accomplishments because they have experience winning a first-round game and now have seen what it takes to win a second-round contest.

Timpson hopes future Florida State teams can continue to be together and find success on the court like the team did this season.  

“We put our program back where [it] needed to be,” she said. “We had a … better season than last year. And that’s the goal for every team, to have a better season than you did the year before.”

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