No. 13 FSU suffocates Arizona State, moves to 10-0

By Kayla Gaskins

Tallahassee, FL — When it comes to protecting their proverbial turf on defense, Arizona State and Florida State are some of the best.

Heading into Sunday’s match-up, the Sun Devils refused to allow an opponent to reach 70 points all season.

Then came the No. 13 ranked Florida State Seminoles.

Florida State (10-0) tomahawked through Arizona State’s (7-3) iron wall defense to claim the win, 77-66.

“This was a great basketball game for us; we have so much respect for Arizona State, and the way they defend. I thought it was going to be a great match-up and it was,” shared the Seminoles head coach Sue Semrau.

During the first, it looked like Florida State’s basket was the size of a soccer goal. AJ Alix got off to a hot start, quickly finding the basket and putting up the first five points for Florida State. The momentum didn’t slow down for the rest of the Seminoles who put up a big 27 points by the end of the first. The Sun Devils were off to a slow start, shooting 40% and putting only 11 up on the board.

However, in the second quarter, Arizona State regained some ground, cutting Florida State’s lead to nine at the half, 46-37.

Coming out of intermission, the Seminoles started to extend its lead a little more after making a couple of adjustments.

“We have a lot of weapons on the offensive end and coming up with some key defensive rebounds and pushing the ball the way that we were able to, I thought that was huge,” Semrau said on holding off Arizona State’s comeback.

“To have two kids having double-doubles, one with assists, I think that’s special too.”

Those two players were Shakayla Thomas and Alix. Thomas contributed 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Alix chipped in 14 points and dished out 11 assists.

The Sun Devils played hard the entire game, fighting to snap the Seminoles winning streak. Reili Richardson put up a career-high 18 points for Arizona State, her teammate Robbi Ryan contributed 15, and Kianna Ibis added another 11.

Despite having three players in double-digits, it wasn’t enough. The Seminoles held onto the lead the entire game. While Arizona State’s defense can cause problems for its opponents, Sunday Florida State had no issues with it as they eclipsed the 70-point mark with a final score of, 77-66.

“We came in with a plan to shut down their post game. They really love to pound it in the post and Reili hasn’t been scoring as much when you look at her percentages,” Semrau said.

“She stepped up and did a great job picking up the slack, but when you look, our game plan was to limit scoring in the paint and it was 40 to 16, so we executed our game plan and that was huge.”

Imani Wright also had a huge game with 22 points, the fourth time this season she posted at least 20 points.

The Seminoles are now 10-0 for the third time in program history.