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No. 8 Florida State cruises to 75-61 win at Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Florida State Seminoles have climbed in the rankings with an efficient and balanced offense.

The defense and rebounding are pretty good, too.

Nicole Ekhomu scored 16 points and Ivey Slaughter had 14 points and 10 rebounds to help the No. 8 Seminoles beat Minnesota 75-61 on Wednesday night in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Reserve center Chatrice White added 13 points and seven rebounds for Florida State (7-1) in its six straight victory. The Seminoles had 11 blocked shots, eight steals and held Minnesota to 33.9 percent shooting.

"It's our bread-and-butter," Slaughter said. "I think that's what makes us a great team on the offensive end because of how we start with defense. Defense is our key."

Florida State outrebounded Minnesota 51-32, including 23 offensive rebounds - leading to 18 second-chance points.

Kenisha Bell scored 17 points and Carlie Wagner added 15 for the Gophers (4-3). They have lost three in a row.

"It was disappointing," Minnesota coach MarleneStollings said. "I just don't think that we handled their physicality. We knew they were a very solid rebounding team. But having played against Georgia and North Carolina and outrebounded both teams, I had higher expectation that we would handle the physicality a little bit better than we did."

The Seminoles used a 12-2 run at the start of the second quarter to open up a 42-19 lead, their biggest of the night.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Florida State recorded a season-high with the 23 offensive rebounds. The Seminoles made any chance of a comeback difficult by grabbing seven offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter alone.

The Gophers entered the game averaging 47.3 rebounds per game, with a plus-3.3 rebounding margin. Florida State had tallied 38.3 rebounds per game and outrebounded opponents by 7.0 per game.

"We knew that it would be a battle on the boards," Florida State coach Sue Semrau said. "We haven't been to the same form that we were last year on the boards. That was something we felt like we needed to grow coming into this game. I thought Ivey was tremendous. She is a great rebounder and it was her turn to step up and really assert herself there."

STAR WATCH

On the same day she was named one of 50 players on the Naismith Trophy watch list, Wagner was held to her second-lowest scoring game of the season.

Wagner entered the game averaging 21.2 points per game to go with 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists. She shot a season-low 12 times against Florida State, hitting six shots. She also had a season low with two rebounds.

BIG PICTURE

Florida State: The Seminoles showed they are more than just Leticia Romero and Shakayla Thomas. The team's top two scorers combined for six points. Romero, who entered averaging 14.8 points, had five rebounds and five assists but only took three shots and went scoreless. Thomas was averaging 15.4 points per game. She scored six points on Wednesday. Instead, the bench contributed 37 points, with two players in double figures.

Minnesota: The team's shooting is proving to be a concern. The Gophers entered the game averaging 79.2 points, but were shooting 40.4 percent from the field. Minnesota shot 33.9 percent just two games after a season-low 27.1 percent in a loss to Georgia.

POLL IMPLICATIONS

Back-to-back wins against the Big Ten will certainly look good on Florida State's resume, but beating Minnesota won't provide much of a boost. The two previous wins - against then-No. 25 Gonzaga and 6-1 Michigan - were more important, as well as the upcoming meeting with No. 19 Florida.

UP NEXT

Florida State: An extended stretch of road games, which included winning the Paradise Jam Championship in the Virgin Islands, is over. The Seminoles have some time off before hosting Western Carolina on Dec. 4.

Minnesota: Off their first loss at home, the Gophers will try to get back on track when they host Detroit on Dec. 3.

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