Day-Wilson led UM women with 21 points, but Canes rally not enough
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 felt 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.
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.
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 guard Shayeann Day-Wilson and Jasmyne Roberts. DayWilson led Miami with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting, including 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.
After the game, coach Katie Meier praised FSU’s ball movement.
“They’re really, really talented, but when they haven’t played well it’s because they have not shared the ball like that and they were willing to share it tonight because this game meant a lot to them. Credit to them. We played hard, but my team wasn’t as faithful to our plan in the second half and that bit us in the butt.
‘‘The story of the game is we had 21 offensive rebounds, but got only six second-chance points off those, Meier added. ‘‘You work that hard against a great rebounding team, but we did not have the composure to make the right decisions and we ended up with a lot of empties.
That’s a shame. That was the story of the game.”
The Hurricanes were without guard Lemyah Hylton, who tore her ACL against Clemson on Feb. 8 and had surgery last week.
“We really could have used her, her energy and charisma,” Roberts said. “She had 15 points against FSU the last time we played them and we definitely missed her.”
The Hurricanes slipped to 16-9 and 6-8 in the
ACC. UM hits the road next for back-to-back games at Virginia Feb. 22 and Clemson Feb. 25.