Latson leads FSU women past Florida
GAINESVILLE, FLA. » Ta’Niya Latson scored a career-high 35 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter, to rally No. 12 Florida State over Florida 79-75 on Friday.
The sophomore was 11of-20 shooting and made all 12 of her free throws in posting her eighth career 30-point game. She made all five of her fieldgoal attempts and seven free throws in final quarter when the Seminoles outscored the Gators 3019. Makayla Timpson added 13 points and 12 rebounds. O’Mariah Gordon and Sara Bejedi scored 10 points each.
Ra Shaya Kyle and Leilani Correa scored 16 points each, Aliyah Matharu added 15 and Alberte Rimdal 13 for the Gators, who had a 25-game home nonconference win streak snapped. Their previous home nonleague loss also came against the Seminoles, in 2019.
The Gators had led the entire second half until Gordon tied the game with a 3-pointer with 2:14 left and Latson added a bucket seconds later to go in front. Florida State clung to the lead with the outcome not settled until Latson made her final two free throws for a five-point lead with 6.4 seconds remaining.
Correa’s two free throws to open the fourth quarter extended a Gators lead to nine points before the Seminoles went on an 11-3 run with seven points from Latson to get within a point with seven minutes left.
Matharu ended the first half with a 3-pointer to cap a 9-0 run and give the Gators
their first lead at 3635.
Florida State is host to South Alabama on Sunday. Florida plays Purdue on Monday in the Pink Flamingo Championships in the Bahamas.
NO. 3 UCLA 77, PRINCETON 74 »
For three quarters, Lauren Betts couldn’t miss. Then senior Charisma Osborne stepped up in the fourth to hold off upsetminded Princeton.
Betts scored a careerhigh 22 points on 9 of 9 shooting from the field and made all four of her freethrow attempts and No. 3 UCLA held off the Tigers on Friday to avoid the upset bug among the top 10 teams in the AP women’s poll.
Only No. 1 South Carolina and the Bruins haven’t lost yet.
“It shows you about the growth of our game,” UCLA coach Cori Close said of this week’s string of upsets. “There are so many more good players and good teams. How awesome is that? You’ve been seeing that on the men’s side for a long time.”
The Bruins (4-0) got their toughest test after opening the season with three blowouts in which their average margin of victory was 43 points.
“This game forces us to a new level of toughness. I don’t think we’ve been tough enough with our attention to detail,” Close said. “It lulls you to sleep when you score 90 points a game and you have these blowout games that offense can cover you.”
Osborne scored 13 of her 21 points in the fourth for UCLA. Kiki Rice added 13 points and Gabriela Jaquez had 11 points.