By MARK FRANK
Associated Press
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Florida State coach Sue Semrau never saw it coming.
Despite out-rebounding, out-shooting and out-scoring Syracuse inside, the Seminoles fell to the Orange 83-73 on Thursday night, snapping Florida State’s 11-game winning streak.
"I think we were a little bit shell-shocked by the pace," Semrau said. "I thought they did a great job. As soon as we scored, they were coming back the other way. When you shoot the ball like that to start, it’s pretty tough."
Brianna Butler hit three of her four 3s to help the Orange run out to an 11-6 lead and Taylor Ford hit 5 of 7 from beyond the arc.
"When you look at it, we had more field goals (28-25), we out-rebounded them (48-35), we were 52-26 in the paint, but we just turned the ball over too much and we didn’t get back to defend," Semrau said.
Syracuse’s 40 minutes of pressure forced the Seminoles into 28 turnovers.
"We’re much more of a rhythm team and we hadn’t seen a team that wanted to keep this pace the whole time," Semrau said. "We thought we could run with them, and maybe in retrospect we should have slowed things down a little bit."
Alexis Peterson had 17 points and Butler added 16 to lead a quartet of Syracuse players in double figures. Brittney Sykes and Ford chipped in with 15 apiece for Syracuse (21-6, 11-3 ACC), which won its seventh straight. Briana Day had 11 rebounds.
With the win, Syracuse’s six seniors kept up a tradition of not losing on a senior night during their careers.
"It meant a lot to win tonight," said Sykes, who may have played her final home game. "We never lose on senior night, and it was great to keep that tradition up."
Adut Bulgak, who left the game with an apparent knee injury with 8:47 to go, led the Seminoles with 23 points, including 5 of 7 on 3s. Shakayla Thomas had 19 points and Ivey Slaughter 13.
Florida State (21-5, 11-2 ACC) suffered a big blow when Bulgak left the game. She returned but only briefly.
The Orange, nursing a 47-44 halftime lead, opened the third quarter with a 15-3 run to take a 62-47 lead with just over six minutes to go in the period.
The Seminoles sliced the lead to 65-60 at the end of three, going on a 13-3 run to close out the quarter. The Orange connected on just one field goal in the last 6 minutes, a 3-pointer by Ford.
The Seminoles closed to 65-62 on two foul shots by Bulgak at the start of the fourth, but Syracuse countered with a 9-0 run to take a 74-62 lead on a layup by Day with just over seven minutes to go and the Seminoles never could recover.
TIP-INS:
Florida State: The Seminoles have been a dominant team in the second half this season, especially over their last seven games. In that span, FSU was outscoring opponents by 14.6 in the second half before Thursday night. … FSU had won seven of its previous 12 games against Top 25 opponents.
Syracuse: Syracuse is the 10th program in the nation to win at least 20 games seven years in a row. … Peterson has led the Orange in scoring 14 times and is six points shy of becoming the program’s 26th 1,000-point scorer. … Butler is now in 24th place in NCAA Division 1 history in career 3s made with 338.
UP NEXT:
Florida State hosts No. 2 Notre Dame Monday.
Syracuse visits Pittsburgh Sunday.
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