Florida St women lose 2 more to injury before NCAA tourney

By AP | Mar 16, 2023

FILE - Florida State's Ta'niya Latson goes up for a basket as Connecticut's Lou Lopez-Senechal (11) defends during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022, in Uncasville, Conn. Latson, the ACC Rookie of the Year, will miss the NCAA Tournament with an undisclosed injury. She averaged 21.3 points and 4.5 rebounds this season. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The short bench of the 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 Friday’s game against 10th-seed 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 was an honorable-mention Associated 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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