With fresh mindset, Sara Bejedi scores career-high 31 to help No. 21 FSU drop No. 11 Hokies

Florida State guard Sara Bejedi has learned many important lessons during her five years of college basketball.

The biggest might have been the most recent. And it also might have been the most challenging to grasp.

After four years of driving herself to be the best basketball player she could be — endlessly analyzing every aspect of her game, constantly harping on any perceived shortcoming — Bejedi finally worked this past summer on letting go of all that stress.

Instead of obsessing over every single detail, she focused on, well, not focusing quite so much.

“This season has been all about having fun,” Bejedi said. “Just enjoying my teammates, my coaches … I’m having fun. Most of the time, I don’t know what’s going on. I’m just having fun (laughing).”

The way she was setting and matching personal bests inside the Tucker Center on Sunday, the Florida State senior might have established a new career high for fun.

Continuing a stretch of exceptional play, Bejedi scored a career-high 31 points and made a slew of other big plays to lead the No. 21 Seminoles to an 89-81 victory against No. 11 Virginia Tech. That came on the heels of her scoring 23 points in a 70-62 victory three days earlier against No. 20 North Carolina.

“It’s helped me to find the love of basketball,” Bejedi said of her new mindset. “A lot of competitive college athletes can relate to the fact that we want to be hands-on, and everybody wants to come in and play a lot of minutes and get a lot of shots, but sometimes that’s not what’s best for the team.

“That’s something I’ve had to grow in for years — this is my fifth year now. … Whether I have 30 points or no points, I’m always going to do what my team needs. And that’s been rewarding for me.”

Bejedi, who averaged 10.8 points per game last season, was averaging 12.3 coming into Sunday. This has been her best season in just about every statistical category — from shooting percentages to rebounding, from assists to steals.

As well as Bejedi played against Virginia Tech — she also tied a career high with eight rebounds and dished out three assists — the Helsinki, Finland, native was not a one-woman gang.

Star sophomore guard Ta’Niya Latson scored 20 points, with 11 coming in the fourth quarter; junior forward Makayla Timpson scored 18 points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked four shots; and junior guard O’Mariah Gordon added 17 points.

Latson had an uncharacteristically difficult night shooting, particularly at the free-throw line, where she missed five of her first seven attempts. But she did a very good job of driving toward the basket, attracting the attention of Virginia Tech’s interior defenders, and finding teammates for easy scores.

Latson tied a career high with eight assists, and she connected on each of her final seven free throws to ice the victory.

“She made ’em when they counted,” said Florida State coach Brooke Wyckoff, who also singled out Timpson’s performance for being essential to the victory.

The 6-foot-2 Georgia product had the unenviable task of going head-to-head with Virginia Tech star Elizabeth Kitley at both ends of the court. Kitley, the two-time ACC Player of the Year, is 6-foot-6 and can score in any number of ways.

She finished Sunday’s game with 30 points, 12 rebounds and five assists, but Timpson and her Florida State teammates made Kitley work for everything she got. She had to attempt a season-high 28 shots, connecting on 14.

With the win, Florida State improved to 14-4 overall and 5-1 in the ACC; Virginia Tech fell to 13-3 and 4-1.

Led by Kitley, the Hokies advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament last season before losing to eventual national champion LSU. They also had won 15 straight games against ACC opponents, dating back to last season, before falling to the Seminoles on Sunday.

“Huge win, obviously, against a really, really good Virginia Tech team,” Wyckoff said. “I felt like at some points in the game that we didn’t have answers for what they were doing – they’re so good. But our team responded. They didn’t ever let up. They kept believing.”

BOX SCORE: No. 21 FSU 89, No. 11 Virginia Tech 81

Notable: Latson reached 1,000 career points late in the fourth quarter. She tied Florida State’s all-time scoring leader, Sue Galkantas, by hitting that milestone in her 48th game as a Seminole. … This was Florida State’s third AP Top 25 win of the season. … Next up for FSU is a road trip to Syracuse on Thursday.

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