Miami native Ta’Niya Latson scores game-high 29 points to lead FSU to 74-68 win over UM

The second-largest crowd of the season showed up at the Watsco Center Sunday afternoon despite the stormy weather to see cross-state rivals University of Miami and Florida State face each other in women’s basketball for the second time in two weeks.

The Hurricanes had their hearts broken by the Seminoles once again, 74-68 this time, thanks in large part to Miami native Ta’Niya Latson, the standout sophomore guard who led all scorers with 29 points.

Latson looked at home in South Florida, as she finished her high school career with a state championship at Plantation American Heritage after spending her sophomore and junior years at Westlake High in Atlanta.

She got off to a slow start Sunday, going 1-of-5 for two points in the first seven minutes. But she had 11 points by halftime and scored 18 in the second half, much to the delight of her fan section, which cheered wildly and waved gold pompons. The last time the teams played, a 75-68 FSU win on Feb. 4 in Tallahassee, the Hurricanes held Latson to 15 points on 4-of-11 shooting.

On Sunday, Latson showed why she is among the most highly touted players in the nation.

“She was beating our ball-stopper because they were being aggressive and attacking the rim, and when they missed (their shots), she got really free in transition,” Meier said of Latson. “She just went downhill and she’s a great player. Some of those finishes were beautiful. Some of them we didn’t do much about.”

Latson is coming off one of the best freshman seasons in NCAA women’s basketball history. She averaged 21.3 points per game last season and set the ACC single-season freshman scoring record with 659 total points.

She returned as one of the conference’s most hyped players in 2023-24 and is living up to her reputation. Heading into Sunday’s game she ranked 13th in the nation with 522 points.

Meier said “the story of the game” was that the Hurricanes did not capitalize on their rebounding advantage. UM outrebounded FSU 51-39, including a 21-13 edge on the offensive glass, but converted only six second-chance points.

“You work that hard against a great rebounding team, 21 offensive rebounds, but we did not have the composure to make the right decisions and we ended up with a lot of empties,” Meier said. “That’s a shame. That was the story of the game.”

The Hurricanes led the Seminoles 16-12 after the first quarter, but Latson found her rhythm and made a three to open the second quarter and close the gap to one point. That sparked a 9-0 FSU run that pushed the Seminoles into the lead.

Miami went on a 7-0 run, the teams traded leads the rest of the half and FSU went into halftime with a 38-32 lead. Latson scored 13 points in the third quarter to widen the Seminoles’ advantage.

The Hurricanes closed to within six points with 38 seconds left in the game on a Jaida Patrick three-pointer. The Canes and the crowd of 3,584 had reason to believe Miami could pull off a miracle as the team had rallied from down 17 and down seven in its wins against Clemson and Georgia Tech last week.

Miami’s 17-point halftime comeback against Clemson was tied for the second-biggest halftime comeback for the program since at least 1995, just one point shy of the record.

But they ran out of time on Sunday, despite big games from guards Shayeann Day-Wilson and Jasmyne Roberts. Day-Wilson led Miami with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting, including four 4-of-9 from beyond the arc. She also had five rebounds and three assists. Day-Wilson has scored in double figures in 11 consecutive games and averaged more than 15 points per game during that stretch.

Roberts had 15 points, 13 rebounds and four assists.

“Jas had seven rebounds early, and I looked at her and said, `You have seven rebounds already, you’re doing great’” Meier said of Roberts. “She needs me in her corner, needs to know how much I believe in her. A couple of times we we were giving her big shots, she can catch and shoot, that’s her secret sauce. At a certain point we were calling out, `Jas, Shy, Jas, Shy.’ When they’re hot, we’re going to keep doing it.”

Miami was missing guard Lemyah Hylton, who tore her ACL against Clemson Feb. 8 and underwent surgery last week. She scored 15 points off the bench against FSU the last time they played. “We definitely missed Lemyah a lot, her getting injured was a big surprise. She was a spark off the bench and we really could have used her, her energy, her personality and charisma.”

In addition to Latson, FSU got big performances from guard Sara Bejedi and forward Makayla Timpson. Bejedi had 19 points. Timpson added 16 points and 11 rebounds.

The Hurricanes slipped to 16-9 and 6-8 in the ACC. Florida State improved to 19-8, 10-5 ACC. UM hits the road next for back-to-back games at Virginia Feb. 22 and Clemson Feb. 25.

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