The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Florida State
Women's Basketball Falls To Florida State In Opener
11/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Junior Dy'man Webb scored a career-high 13 points to lead the UAB women's basketball team in its loss to Florida State, 92-62, on Friday night in Tallahassee, Fla.
"Florida State has a fantastic team," said head coach Randy Norton. `This is the 21st year in a row they have won their season opener by 28 or more points. We were hoping we could come in and compete with them tonight. As I told the players, we got better this game. Our kids got some valuable experience coming off the bench and I felt like we improved in the second half."
UAB (0-1) shot 41.2 percent from the field, while Florida State (1-0) finished 54.9 percent in the game. The Blazers did a good job of getting to the free throw line, connecting on 14 of 21 trips. Turnovers proved costly though, as the Seminoles converted 44 points off UAB's 26 turnovers.
The Blazers struggled to get going in the first half as Florida State jumped out to a 14-5 lead. UAB responded with 8-0 run to cut the lead to one, 14-13, after a jumper by junior Brittany Winborne and back-to-back 3-pointers from freshman Kasey Drayton and senior Janae Smith.
However, Florida State surged ahead once again with a 16-0 run to put UAB down, 30-13 at the 10:14 mark. The Seminoles were up by 20 when Winborne hit two consecutive layups to cut the lead to 16 with 4:37 to go, but Florida State used another run to head into the half with a 49-26 lead.
"We knew that it is hard to emulate how Florida State plays defense in practice," Norton said. "They pressure you so hard and they are disruptive, it was hard to get any kind of rhythm with our offense. Defensively, Florida State just beat us up and down the court."
In the second half, UAB was able to find a rhythm as it finished with 36 points to Florida State's 43. The Blazers would cut the lead to 22 with 3:13 remaining after an 8-0 run that was sparked by a 3-pointer by junior Chelsee Black and capped with an and-one from Webb, but could not get any closer as Florida State closed with a 92-62 win.
Webb scored 11 of her 13 points in the second half and was a perfect 5-of-5 from the charity strip. Black also reached double figures with 12 points, while Winborne added nine points and contributed a team-high nine rebounds.
"Dy'Man has been extremely sick the last two days and she came in and played 24 minutes and scored 13 points so she really improved tonigh and Brittany did a good job as well," Norton said. "Florida State has a lot of size inside and we don't see that as much in Conference USA."
Drayton, who made her first appearance as a Blazer, finished with a career-high nine points after sinking three 3-pointers. Smith was 2-for-2 from behind the arc before going down with an injury at the end of the first half. She finished with eight points.
"We were down 23 after the first half and by just seven points in the second half so that is improvement," Norton remarked. "We knew coming in that Florida State was going to give us everything we wanted and then some, but we got better. We improved as the game went on and we will take this to get ready for Wednesday at home."
UAB will return home to host Lipscomb on Wednesday in its home opener. The game is set to begin at 7 p.m. CT.
For the latest news on Blazer sports, follow the UAB Athletics Twitter account: @UABathletics. For women's basketball news, follow @UAB_WBB.
