| Junior Kelsey Ansley scored a team-high 11 points in her Roadrunners debut on Saturday. |
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — No. 6 Florida State held off the UTSA women’s basketball team 65-50 in day one action of the Duel in the Desert Tournament.
The Roadrunners saw their record drop to 4-4 on the season, while the Seminoles remained unbeaten at 10-0.
Junior Kelsey Ansley, who was making her UTSA debut, scored a team-high 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Junior Kameisha Johnson and freshmen Judy Jones and Whitney Wright added nine points apiece.
The Roadrunners struggled from the free throw line connecting on 11-of-26, including 6-of-18 in the second half. The three-ball also doomed UTSA going 5-of-24 on the day and 0-of-10 in the second half.
FSU was led by Alexa Deluzio’s 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor. A trio of Seminoles in Jacinta Monroe, Courtney Ward and Chelsea Davis chipped in with nine points.
Florida State held a 56-39 rebounding advantage, which led to 22 second chance points and 30 points in the paint.
Ward’s trey gave Florida State an 11-point lead with 15:39 left in the game. Ansley’s connected on a freebie to pull UTSA within six points (48-42) of the Seminoles lead with 9:39 left. This would the closet the Roadrunners would for the rest of the game. Davis’ tip in with 3:34 to go gave FSU a 59-47.
The Seminoles ended the game on a 6-1 run to seal the 15-point win.
UTSA jumped to early 6-0 lead on back-to-back 3-pointers by juniors Amber Gregg and Johnson within the first three minutes of the first half. Florida State then took its first lead of the game with a quick 7-0 run over the next minute and half.
Wright connected on a three-point play to give the Roadrunners a 10-9 lead with 14:40 remaining in the half. Monroe’s free throws capped off an 11-0 run by the Seminoles to make it a 21-10 advantage with under nine minutes to go.
Wright’s back-to-back buckets ended UTSA’s scoreless drought that spanned over five minutes and trim FSU’s lead to seven (21-14) with 8:08 to go. Both teams traded baskets over the next two minutes, until Florida State pushed its lead to double digits (31-20) on Deluzio’s second three-ball of the stanza from the right wing with five minutes and change on the clock.
Johnson’s third 3-pointer started a 7-0 spurt that got the Runners within 35-30 with 1:14, but FSU connected on three free throws to increase the lead 38-30 at the half.
UTSA returns to action at 2 p.m. on Sunday against Arkansas.