’Canes women hammered

Third quarter decisive in loss

CORAL GABLES — In every way, the Hurricanes expected a challenge. And they weren’t wrong.

Miami’s women’s basketball team had nothing but high praise for their in-state conference rivals from Tallahassee ahead of their Thursday meeting, and it didn’t take long for Florida State to live up to it all.

The seventh-ranked Seminoles forced the Hurricanes into mistake after mistake, hit shots when Miami went cold and dominated the Hurricanes on the boards to eventually secure an 81-66 win on Miami’s home floor in front of a spirited crowd at the Watsco Center.

The victory was Florida State’s fourth straight over the Hurricanes in Coral Gables. It snapped Miami’s 11-game win streak, and the Seminoles handed the Hurricanes their first conference loss, with Miami (11-2, 0-1) set to face a brutal stretch of ACC play in the coming weeks.

“We don’t need a genius strategic analysis of why we lost,” Hurricanes coach Katie Meier said. “It was effort, 100 percent. Fiftyfifty balls, they got every one of them. They had two players on their team that got as many offensive rebounds as my entire team did. They had two players that got six offensive rebounds. My entire team, we, I’m with them, we got six. … But we’re going to be a lot tougher the next time you see us play.”

For the Hurricanes, it was as tough an outing imaginable from beginning to end.

The Seminoles used a 15-5 run that spanned the final minutes of the first quarter and the beginning of the second to build a 25-12 lead and elicit cheers from the sizable contingent of Seminoles fans in the building, many of whom will likely be at Hard Rock Stadium today night for the Orange Bowl.

But Miami, which shot a dismal 5-of-16 early, began chipping away at that margin thanks to some impressive second-quarter perimeter shooting from its two senior guards.

Adrienne Motley, a two-time All-ACC pick, and Jessica Thomas keyed a 16-5 run over the quarter’s final minutes, with Thomas hitting a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer.

Thomas would finish with a team-high 20 points and Motley would add 18, but the two of them couldn’t do it all against FSU (13-1, 1-0), which outscored Miami 28-14 in the third quarter to pull away.

“That third quarter is what really put us in the hole,” Thomas said. “As a senior and as a leader, I have to hold myself and my teammates more accountable coming in after halftime.”

Motley added: “Our weakness right now is the third quarter and it’s something we have to fix if we want to win some games in the ACC. … We have to look into ourselves and see what we have to fix.”

The Seminoles, who have now won 12 straight to tie a program win streak, outrebounded Miami 43-25, had 20 secondchance points and scored 29 points off 18 Miami turnovers.