The Florida State women's basketball team has started the 2026-2027 season undefeated through the first four games but the opponents have been subpar. That is until Sunday, when the Seminoles welcomed their bitter rival Florida to the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center.
Freshman Morgan Stewart scored 22 points on 8 of 13 shooting as FSU continued its hot streak and remained undefeated as they defeated the Gators in a grinder of a game 71-63.
“I’m so happy with the way that we performed today and just hung tough,” FSU coach Brooke Wyckoff said. “We wanted to be the tougher team and just provide our fans that came out and we had great support today.”
Vanderbilt transfer Aga Makurat added 13 points and six rebounds as the Seminoles (5-0) remain perfect after five games for the first time since the 2023-24 season.
FSU started the game on a 7-0 run early after two early 3-pointers from Makurat. The Seminoles went cold from the field when they couldn’t score a basket for three minutes, 22 seconds. They also added five turnovers during that period and trailed the Gators 20-18 at the end of the first quarter.
Florida would get five quick points to start the second quarter, which Wyckoff to burn a timeout to gather her team and calm them down as the Gators stretched their lead to 25-18.
The Seminoles got back on track by countering Florida with a 6-0 run and, after a back and forth affair throughout the majority of the first quarter, FSU would take the lead 28-27 with two minutes, 59 seconds left until halftime. The ’Noles would hang on and head into halftime with a 34-32 lead that was highlighted by freshmen guard Morgan Stewart, who poured in 15 points, two rebounds, one assist and two steals in the first half to lead all scorers.
“I was very happy with how our players executed,” Wyckoff said. “Throughout the game, we’re trying to figure out what Florida is doing defensively, where our openings were going to be, how to attack ball screens and they were just so focused on trying to do what we were asking them to do, looking at coverages and then just coming up with big shots.”
The Seminoles opened with another scoring drought to start the third quarter that would go on for three minutes and 51 seconds, allowing the Gators to go up 43-39.
After a flagrant-1 foul on Florida guard Vanessa Harris, Stewart headed to the line and made both of her free throws, but Florida State would quickly turn it over on the inbounds play and would have no opportunity to take the lead or tie.
The game continued to get chippy and physical but the lead was never too far out of both teams’ hands, although the Gators would go on a 7-0 run toward the end of the 3rd quarter to maintain the lead 50-46 heading into the final quarter.
Two quick 3-pointers from senior forward Savannah Henderson cut the Florida lead to one with 7:49 left in the game. Senior guard Solé Williams would add another 3-pointer to give the Seminoles the lead by two.
Down the stretch the game was back and forth filled with physicality and bodies flying all over the floor. The game was very important to both teams but FSU showed grit and hit the shots they needed down the stretch to hang on to their lead. Makurat, Williams and Stewart were big contributors in the fourth quarter that would eventually seal the game.
“I feel like we’re definitely working on our connectiveness,” Williams said. “We’re still putting an emphasis on that, making sure we’re coming to our huddles because we know that games are going to get hard. So that togetherness and connectedness that we have is very important to be able to move on to the next play, so I think just building on that has been helping us a lot.”
Coming up
FSU will hit the road next to Orlando for the WBCA Showcase against Purdue and UCF starting on Thursday and then travel to Richmond for the 4Tha Culture Holiday Hoops games against Dayton and VCU starting on Nov. 27.
The game against the Gators wraps up the Seminoles’ five-game homestand to start the year. They won’t return home until Dec. 3 when they welcome Missouri for the SEC/ACC Challenge.
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