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Traylor hits a high to lift Seminoles

Her career-best 30 points show Florida State's guard strength in a 72-70 victory over Tulane.

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 17, 2001

AMES, Iowa -- Sue Semrau insisted Florida State was not out to prove anything in its first NCAA Tournament game in 10 years.

But in a first-round game that was decided in the final three seconds a few feet from the basket, FSU did prove something. A game that featured excellent post players was dominated by FSU guard April Traylor, and guard play is where FSU is supposed to be vulnerable.

Tell that to No. 10 seed Tulane, 72-70 loser to No. 7 seed FSU on Friday night. FSU got the school's second tournament win behind Traylor, who scored a career-high 30 points.

Traylor's best was 29 against Florida in 1999. Traylor helped Florida State survive an off-night by leading scorer Brooke Wyckoff, who scored five points on 2-for-10 shooting.

Wyckoff was averaging 15.2.

Traylor sparked a crucial first-half run with both team's best players on the bench, then hit a huge three-pointer in the final four minutes.

"I've been waiting for this for a long time," Traylor said.

Forced to play zone because of foul trouble, Tulane (22-10) played to Traylor's hot hand. She was 5-for-7 from three-point range.

"In the NCAA Tournament, your guard play has got to be great," Semrau said. "That's something a lot of people don't feel like we have -- great guard play. I do. That's as much a strength as our interior."

Tulane had a chance to send the game into overtime with a final play designed during a timeout with 12 seconds. The Green Wave looked inside to 6-foot-5 center Janell Burse, its best player. FSU post players Levys Torres and Katelyn Vujas, who led FSU with nine rebounds and added 14 points, smothered Burse, who misfired with three seconds remaining.

Burse scored 22 points, but the focus of Tulane's game plan was not as great a threat after she collected her second foul at the 11:52 mark in the first half.

FSU faces Iowa State at 2:07 p.m Sunday in a game scheduled to be televised by ESPN2.

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