January 31, 1999

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida State senior guard Jen Robinson scored a career-high 31 points, including a career-high six three pointers, but the Seminoles fell 86-78 to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Sunday afternoon at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center. With the loss, FSU falls to 6-14 overall and 1-10 in the ACC while Georgia Tech improves to 12-9 overall and 5-6 in the league.

As in the first game vs. the Yellow Jackets, Florida State started out strong and led quickly by seven points at 10-3 off of three-pointers by Robinson and April Traylor. Georgia Tech came back to tie the game at 27-27 with just under nine minutes remaining in the first half and then outscored FSU 18-10 the rest of the way to take a 45-37 lead into the halftime break. It was a three-point extravaganza for Tech's Danielle Donehew as the junior went 6-for-6 from beyond the arc in the first half to lead all players with 18 points. Niesha Butler added 13 first half points as the Jackets shot 57 percent for the half.

Florida State led only once in the second half, despite pulling within three points or under 11 times and forcing one tie. Trailing 53-60 at the eight minute mark, Robinson went to work for the Seminoles and scored three straight treys to pull the Tribe within a point. Robinson scored 24 second-half points, including 19 in the game's final 7:39. FSU's only lead was at 66-65 off of a Robinson layup at the 4:17 mark. The Yellow Jackets did not back down, however, and scored eight of the game's next 10 points to go back up by five. Another Robinson three-pointer pulled FSU within a deuce at 71-73 with 1:47 to go, but Tech made its free throws down the stretch and again went on a 10-2 run to match its largest lead of 10 points, before taking the 86-78 victory.

"I'm very disappointed with today's game," FSU Head Coach Sue Semrau said, "but, we will continue to take one game at a time. We're not going to throw in the towel.

"Credit Georgia Tech with outstanding shooting today. I thought we had some defensive breakdowns and just weren't sharp in that area today."

Traylor and Arleshia Davidson also scored in double figures for FSU while Donehew and Butler led the way with 23 apiece for Georgia Tech. Kenya Williams added 21 and Regina Tate had 13.

"I felt like toward the end of the game, nobody else wanted to shoot," FSU's Jen Robinson said. "I was hot so I kept on shooting, but I was thinking about winning the game, not how many points I could score. I told Coach Sue that I'd trade all of my points today for a "W."

Florida State will travel to Raleigh, N.C., for a 7 p.m. tilt with NC State on Thursday, February 4th. The game will be shown live on Sunshine Network, Cable 23.