No. 16 Florida St. 72, No. 23 Vanderbilt 66

Published Nov. 21, 2010 10:19 p.m. ET

foxsports

Courtney Ward was in a shooting slump to start the season.

She broke out of it with a career-high 31 points, including making a career-best seven 3-pointers - to help No. 16 Florida State defeat 23rd-ranked Vanderbilt 72-66 on Sunday.

''I guess I was just feeling it more,'' Ward said. ''It was just something that came to me.''

Freshman Natasha Howard added 11 points for FSU (4-0), which led 33-25 at the half but fought off a furious second-half charge by Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt (2-1) trailed for much of the game but gradually chipped away at FSU's lead and went ahead 38-37 with 13:32 left in the second half on Tiffany Clark's inside basket.

The teams traded baskets until the final minutes.

Ward made all six free-throw attempts in the game's final minutes, helping seal the win.

The Commodores were led by a pair of freshmen. Christina Foggie scored 21 points - on 8 of 13 shooting - and Jasmine Lister added 17 points.

''It's one of those games where we wore ourselves out making our comeback,'' Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb said. ''We've had a lot of injuries and haven't had a lot of full-court practices. Our kids were real tired. That's the most tired I've seen one of my teams.''

Florida State made 10 of its 17 3-pointers (59 percent) while Vanderbilt was 8 for 15 (53 percent). The Seminoles also outrebounded Vanderbilt 36-24.

FSU held Vanderbilt's Stephanie Holzer to six points in 27 minutes. Holzer had scored 46 points in the Commodores' first two games this season.

Vanderbilt dropped to 43-5 in November in Balcomb's nine seasons. All of the losses have been on the road.