November 4, 2019 - by
12/13 Women’s Hoops Hosts Taco Tuesday
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Seminoles.com) – It’s not just any Tuesday. It’s a season-opening TACO TUESDAY.
The first 250 fans at the Donald L. Tucker Center on Tuesday evening will each receive a free taco as No. 12/13 Florida State Women’s Basketball hosts Charleston Southern. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be televised on the ACC Network Extra.
Florida State goes for its fourth consecutive season-opening win. The Seminoles have won 24 of their past 25 season openers, and own a 21-1 record in season-opening games since head coach Sue Semrau began her FSU coaching career in 1997.
FSU’s last time out facing another opponent happened on Oct. 27, when it defeated Florida Southern 104-46 in an exhibition at the Tucker Center. Freshman center River Baldwin dropped a game-high 19 points in 19 minutes, 32 seconds of action.
Baldwin, a McDonald’s All-American from Andalusia, Ala., went 9-of-11 from the free throw line and drew a team-high six fouls in the exhibition. Baldwin is a member of the ACC Newcomer Watch Lists by both coaches and the Blue Ribbon Panel.
🌮 TACO TUESDAY❗️❗️❗️ 🌮
Be there for our season opener this Tuesday and get yourself one!#FSUWBB | #GETIN pic.twitter.com/UdvU2AQFYl
— FSU Women's Hoops (@fsuwbb) November 3, 2019
Charleston Southern head coach Fred Applin has served on coaching staffs that have faced Coach Sue’s Florida State teams. Applin was an assistant at the University of Washington when it played the Seminoles in 2008, and was an Associate Head Coach at Wake Forest when it played FSU four times from 2004-07. Semrau went 4-1 in those games.
Garnering plenty of preseason praise has been redshirt senior forward Kiah Gillespie of Florida State. Her most recent honor was being named the nation’s 21st-best player by ESPNW. Gillespie is also on the 2019-20 Katrina McClain Award Watch List (nation’s best power forward), a Preseason All-ACC Team selection and has earned preseason second and third-team All-America honors.
Florida State’s only other meeting with Charleston Southern came in a 72-51 win at Tully Gym on Dec. 5, 1997. It was Coach Sue’s sixth game as FSU’s head coach, and then-freshman Brooke Wyckoff notched nine points, 12 boards, four assists, four blocks and two steals.
A win over the Buccaneers on Tuesday would be FSU’s 100th non-conference victory since the 2011-12 season. Over the last eight years, FSU is 99-24 (.805) vs. non-conference teams. Since the 2014-15 season, Florida State owns a 71-9 (.886) home record at the Tucker Center.
The projected starting five of Nausia Woolfolk, Nicki Ekhomu, Kourtney Weber, Gillespie and Valencia Myers started together in 21 of FSU’s 33 games played last season. All five started in the exhibition win vs. Florida Southern. They are part of a group that returns every playing member from last season.
FSU joins only Purdue and Boston College as the Power five schools whom return 100 percent of their scoring from a season ago.
Following Tuesday’s season opener, Florida State will travel to Baton Rouge, La., to take on LSU on Saturday, Nov. 9, at 2 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on the SEC Network +.
