3 keys for FSU women's basketball to end losing skid heading into week on road

Halfway through ACC play, Florida State women's basketball (14-6, 5-3) is looking to get back on track after a pair of back-to-back losses, leaving the Seminoles with an urge to "be better than it was" last week.

On Jan. 18, Syracuse snapped FSU's three-game win streak in a 79-73 Orange victory, which was later followed by a 91-87 loss to Virginia on Jan. 21. The loss to the Cavaliers was the first time the Seminoles dropped a game to them in Tallahassee since February 2012.

Looking for answers heading into two road games against Duke (12-6, 4-3) on Thursday at 6 p.m. and Georgia Tech (13-6, 4-3) on Sunday at 4 p.m., here are three keys for FSU to snap its two-game losing streak.

Close out on defense in fourth quarter

FSU head coach Brooke Wyckoff said that the main reason the Seminoles had dropped back-to-back games was because of the team's lack of defense in the fourth quarter.

Against Syracuse, it got outscored 25-11, sufficing a 62-54 lead that it had going into the final frame of play. At one point in the game, when the Seminoles had a 54-36 lead, according to ESPN, they had a 96% percent chance to win the game.

It was a similar story against the Cavaliers a few days later as a 43-39 lead at halftime fell to turn into a 65-65 tie at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth, Virginia outscored FSU, 26-22, the second straight game the Seminoles had allowed more than 25 points in a quarter.

The loss to the Cavaliers' was a little more shocking as FSU was a 10-point favorite coming into the game and was playing a team that had not won an ACC game, and was 1-49 in its last 50 games against ranked opposition.

FSU has had a lot of strong moments in both these games, seeing it really dominate in the second quarter, but when it comes to crunch time, the Seminoles need to close out.

Limiting 'career-nights'

In its last three games, at least one of the players from the opposing team has scored more than 30 points. In the eight-point win over Virginia Tech, the Hokies Elizabeth Kitley went off for 30 points. However, a more expanded scoring presence from FSU proved to be the difference.

Against Syracuse and Virginia, the Seminoles struggled to stop one player in particular buzzer to buzzer.

Syracuse guard Dyaisha Fair threw down 31 points against the Seminoles, with the rest of the Orange's roster contributing just 48 points. Shooting nine three-pointers, the total was a season-high for Fair.

Adding to the upset theme against Virginia, the Cavaliers saw a breakout performance from freshman Kymora Johnson, who erupted for 36 points off of 14-of-20 shooting from the field. It was a career-high for Johnson, eclipsing her last career best of 26 points, which came against Atlantic 10 Fordham.

While FSU has done a decent job in limiting the offensive threat to just one player, it needs to key into players who are solely leading the scoring effort.

Limiting the scoring threat is big, but both Fair and Johnson showed that one player can really make a difference at the end of the night.

Continue to active 4-player scoring threat

One of the biggest reasons why FSU has had as much success as it has had this season is its depth, mainly its ability to get nearly 15-point games from four different players each night.

Ta'Niya Latson, Sara Bejedi, Makayla Timpson and O'Mariah Gordon have been the depth pieces for the Seminoles all season and you can almost expect that all of them will eclipse double-figure scoring totals each game.

Latson is leading the group, averaging 20.4 points a night followed by Timpson and Bejedi, who are averaging 14. Timpson is also averaging a near-double-double with 9.5 rebounds a game and has nine this season. Bejedi is averaging 13.1 a game and is three games off a career-high 31 points against Virginia Tech.

The opposition has begun to key into Bejedi a little more as she finished with 11 against Syracuse and 10 against Virginia, seeing a dip after she was averaging 24 points in the games three games before last week.

By no means is FSU down on offense, but having Latson, Timpson, Gordon and Bejedi all activated at the same time has allowed the Seminoles to play some of their best basketball this season. Getting the group of four going, especially on the road, spells out success.

Jack Williams covers Florida State athletics for Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at jwilliams@tallahassee.com or on X @jackgwilliams.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: 3 ways FSU women's basketball can snap losing streak on the road