GREENSBORO, N.C. – The No. 5 seed Florida State Women’s Basketball team could not hold onto its big lead in the third quarter as it finished its stay at the Ally ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament with a 65-54 loss to No. 12 seed Wake Forest on Thursday afternoon in the ACC Second Round.

“Huge credit to Wake Forest and their second-half comeback,” FSU Head Coach Brooke Wyckoff said. “They really showed a lot of fight and got the job done. Credit to them, and I wish them the best going forward.

“This is a really tough loss. I thought we had a great first half defensively, and that changed in the second half, and we weren't able to score the ball and definitely couldn't get stops.”

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The Demon Deacons used a 26-0 run in the second half to highlight their comeback. The Seminoles (23-9) went ahead 38-18 early in the third quarter after a layup by sophomore O’Mariah Gordon. Despite Wake Forest scoring nine consecutive points, sophomore Makayla Timpson responded with four straight trips to the free throw to leave FSU leading 42-27 with 5:41 left in the third.

That’s when Wake Forest began their large run that swung the momentum of the matchup, taking a 53-42 lead with 6:43 remaining in the game.

Timpson led the Seminoles with 14 points and nine rebounds, falling just short of what would have been her 14th double-double of the season.

“We've just got to go into the tournament and just -- we're just on a loss, like a two-loss streak,” Timpson said. “So we've just got to get it done.”

Redshirt senior Erin Howard sparked Florida State with 12 points and seven rebounds, making four 3-point field goals. Gordon chipped in with 12 points and three assists in 26 minutes.

The Seminoles were without the nation’s best freshman in Ta’Niya Latson, who missed the game due to injury and is day-to-day moving forward.

Florida State held Wake Forest to 16 points at the half, including a two-point second quarter. It was the lowest point total by an FSU opponent at the half since Pitt had 14 on Jan. 22.

Florida State will await their NCAA Tournament seeding with the NCAA Women’s Basketball Selection Show held Sunday, March 12, at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU women's basketball: Without Latson, Wake Forest defeats Seminoles in 2nd half