Virginia Tech was plagued by 24 turnovers in Thursday night’s 105-74 loss to Florida State.
The Hokies (9-4, 0-2 ACC) struggled to take care of the rock for much of the night, leading to easy runouts for the Seminoles (12-2, 2-0). Tech had 16 first-half miscues that FSU converted into 24 points, which blew the game open, and it didn’t get much better in the second.
“I thought [the Seminoles] were tremendous scoring the basketball,” Tech head coach Megan Duffy said. “Everything we thought they could be and do, they did, so a lot of this accountability is on my shoulders.”
It was a back-and-forth game through the first media timeout before three Tech turnovers let Florida State get out in transition. An 8-0 run pushed the margin to double digits for the first time at 24-14, and though the Hokies cut it to five with a minute left in the first quarter, the Noles pulled away for good. At halftime, FSU led 52-38.
Ta’Niya Latson and Makayla Timpson — the best scoring duo in Division I — combined for 56 points, 40 of which came from Latson, who entered the night averaging a nation’s best 27.2 points per game. As a tandem, they were averaging 45.4 before Thursday.
Latson was 18-of-28 from the field and scored 23 of her career-high 40 in the second half. Her 18 made field goals were the most by an opponent in Cassell Coliseum history. She was also just the second D-I player with 40 points, five assists and five rebounds in a game in the last five years, per ESPNW.
“Latson is, gosh, extremely talented,” Duffy said. “She just plays at an incredible pace, completely under control with what she wants to do. She can slide through small spaces, tremendous body control of being able to finish, even while you’re up on her, she can kind of hang in the air a little bit. … I just thought once she got cooking a little bit, her confidence grew.”
Timpson had a slightly quieter night but was an efficient 8-of-12 while also blocking three shots. The third piece to FSU’s puzzle was O’Mariah Gordon, who finished with 18 points, eight assists and a career-high seven steals. Wyckoff described her as the team’s “rock.”
The Hokies had trouble slowing down the Seminoles all evening. They allowed 74 points in the paint, the most ever by an opponent since Tech joined the ACC in 2004. The previous high was 60 by Virginia in 2007. (VT only had 74 points in general on Thursday night.)
On top of that, FSU shot 58 percent (46-of-79) for the game, including 63 percent (39-of-62) on 2-point attempts.
“Our defense wasn’t very good,” Duffy said. “I’m trying to find something positive, but we’ll take it. We know it wasn’t very good, we know Florida State’s one of the best scoring teams in the country. Just our one-on-one defense. We tried to switch it, we tried to fight through some things, we tried to hedge, tried a little bit of everything but unfortunately wasn’t able to really shut them down, and then I thought we had a couple of really nice possessions and then they hit threes. Kind of a bad mix of both for this evening.”
It was the most points by an opponent in Cassell since Old Dominion posted 100 in 1984. Moreover, the 31-point margin of defeat was the worst mark since Tech lost by 42 to Baylor in the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
From the Virginia Tech perspective, its 24 turnovers were the most since it hit that mark in 2020 vs. Gardner-Webb. Of those 24, 21 were steals credited to Florida State — the most by an opponent since Georgia Tech had 26 in 2008.
However, even without the miscues, the Hokies struggled to find consistency on the offensive end, shooting just 37 percent (22-of-59). While they were OK for certain stretches — their 74 points were the most in their four losses this year and close to their average (77.3) — they also allowed 105 points, 24 more than their previous high in a defeat (81).
“Just being more connected with one another,” said Tech forward Rose Micheaux on where the Hokies could be better across the board defensively. “They do have a lot of good scorers, but I feel like we could have played a lot better defensively with one another, just understanding the calls that we were doing and just buying in to the scout that we had and making sure we wanted to accomplish what we wanted to do in the game.”
Micheaux led the scoring with 16 points and also added 11 rebounds. She and Lani White, who had 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting, were the only Tech players with marks above 50 percent.
Matilda Ekh chipped in 13 points and six boards while Carys Baker had 12 and nine. Wenzel finished with 12 points, though she also had 11 of the team’s 24 giveaways. Mackenzie Nelson also added nine points.
Tech has an opportunity to learn from its mistakes and right the ship on Sunday when it travels to Miami (noon ET, ACC Network Extra).
“We talked about this a little bit in the locker room: We have a long season ahead,” Duffy said. “There’s new players in new roles, I’m going to spend a lot of time breaking it down and getting us ready for Miami. And even the comment Rose made, she’s ready to take accountability and that’s the really, really good thing about this team. We made a couple mistakes but we’re not falling apart, and really excited to get to work tomorrow and come back and see if we can have another day to fight.”
On a different note, Duffy announced that sophomore point guard Samyha Suffren will miss the remainder of the season with a shoulder injury that requires surgery.
“Unfortunately, she has to undergo shoulder surgery here pretty soon,” Duffy said. “Just disappointed. She’s made some incredible strides from freshman to sophomore year but this option is the best option for her health and longevity of her career.”
Suffren sat out her third straight game on Thursday and had her right arm in a sling. She was originally ruled day-to-day back in December, but Duffy’s latest update came after the loss to Florida State.
She indicated that the team has known Suffren’s status for some time and adapted to practicing and playing without her. The Charlotte, N.C., native has still been around the team and will continue to help out in other ways.
“We’ve had a little bit of time now to play without her so that’s what was good when we were trying to figure out the best steps were for her,” Duffy said of Suffren. “We got Mackie [Nelson] more minutes, Leila Wells more minutes, we can shift our lineup a little bit so that’s been actually pretty seamless because she was out a little bit so we’ve had time — a lot of practice time, actually — to work on that.
“But great kid, she’s going to come back stronger than ever. She’s been awesome, I call her ‘Little Coach Suffren’ now, so she’s going to be helping me and we’re going to give her some duties to help her stay focused, along with her rehab.”
Suffren played in the first 10 games of the season and averaged 8.1 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. She had three double-figure contests, including her last outing at then-No. 8 Duke, where she posted 10 points, six rebounds and three assists.
Her versatility, athleticism and skill set will certainly be missed, though Micheaux praised Suffren’s passion and spark and how she’s stayed involved with the group despite her setback.
“I feel like this is a tough time for not just herself, but all of us, because of how big of a role she plays for us,” Micheaux said. “Just her being present in practice every day and bringing the energy that we know that we need from her, it just really helps. It shows that she’s not always a player that executes on the floor, but we can use her in so many different areas with her just being there mentally for us. She brings a lot of energy into practice and we do appreciate that from her.”
Box Score: Florida State 105, Virginia Tech 74
Thoughts from #Hokies' 105-74 loss to Florida State: pic.twitter.com/JbnDf4SwV0
— David Cunningham (@therealdcunna) January 3, 2025