The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Top ACC freshman, an ex-westlake High star, among injured.

- By John Bohnenkamp

IOWA CITY, IOWA — The short bench of Florida State women’s basketball team just got shorter.

Now the Seminoles, the seventh seed in Seattle Regional 4, will play with just eight players in the NCAA Tournament, beginning with today’s game against 10th-seeded Georgia.

Florida State announced Thursday that freshman guard Ta’niya Latson and sophomore guard O’mariah Gordon will miss the game against the Bulldogs and rest of the tournament because of injuries.

Latson, who played at Westlake High and was named to the AJC Class 6A first team as a junior, was an honorable-mention Asso- ciated Press All-american along with ACC Rookie of the Year and a first-team all-conference selection. She averaged 21.3 points and 4.5 rebounds this season.

The Seminoles had just 10 players on the roster all season.

“Fortunatel­y or unfortunat­ely, we’ve been in this situation before throughout the season,” Florida State coach Brooke Wyckoff said. “We’ve been down to eight players at certain times. So that’s one of the things that I love about our group, is that we only have 10, but

I’ve always felt we’re deep.

Latson missed the Seminoles’ loss to Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament because of an undisclose­d injury.

“I mean, it’s going to be challengin­g,” forward Makayla Timpson said. “We feel pretty confident going into the game. Obviously, we lose our scoring guard and our point guard. We’ve still got other people who are going to step up for us. We feel pretty confident.”

Gordon, who played in 30 games and started twice this season, averaged 6.9 points and 2.0 rebounds.

“It won’t change anything we do stylistica­lly,” Wyckoff said. “Ta’niya is a talented scorer and all-around player, but stylistica­lly in our approach to the game — which is to get out and run, attack the basket, find open shooters — that won’t change in terms of what we do.”

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