Ta'Niya Latson is an American

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

player for the

South Carolina Gamecocks The South Carolina Gamecocks represent the University of South Carolina in the NCAA Division I. The University of South Carolina uses "Gamecocks" as its official nickname and mascot. While the men's teams were traditionally known as the Fight ...

of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

(SEC). She previously played for the

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University (FSU) located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I, prima ...

High school career

Latson played for

Miami Country Day School Miami Country Day School (MCDS) is a private, non-denominational, co-ed preschool-12 college preparatory school in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, near Miami Shores, just north of the city of Miami, Florida, United States. The school has been ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and Charles W. Flanagan High School in

Pembroke Pines Pembroke Pines is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States. The city is located 22 miles (35 km) north of Miami. It is a suburb of and the fourth-most populous city in the Miami metropolitan area. The population of Pembroke ...

, Florida during her freshman season, before moving to Westlake High School in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. She was teammates with

Raven Johnson Raven Johnson (born March 4, 2003) is an American college basketball player for the South Carolina Gamecocks of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). High school career Johnson played basketball for Westlake High School in Atlanta. She played along ...

at Westlake and led the team to its first

GEICO The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO ) is an American vehicle insurance company headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland. In addition to auto insurance, GEICO provides motorcycle, ATV, RV, boat, snowmobile, travel, pet, event, hom ...

Nationals title as a junior, as well as two state titles. For her senior season, Latson transferred to American Heritage School in

Plantation, Florida Plantation is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. It is a part of the South Florida metropolitan area. The city's name comes from the previous part-owner of the land, the Everglades Plantation Company, and their unsuccessful attem ...

. After leading the team to a Class 5A state title, she earned Miss Basketball,

Gatorade Player of the Year The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys baseball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls cross country, boys football, boys and girl ...

and Class 5A Player of the Year honors for Florida. Latson was selected to play in the

McDonald's All-American Game The McDonald's All-American Game is an American all-star basketball game played each year for boys' and girls' high school basketball graduates. Consisting of the top players, each team plays a single exhibition game after the conclusion of the hi ...

. Rated a five-star recruit by

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, she committed to play

for

Florida State Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

over offers from Baylor, Georgia, Kentucky, Miami (Florida), NC State, Texas and Virginia Tech.

College career

On November 7, 2022, Latson made her debut for Florida State, recording 28 points and nine rebounds in a 113–50 win over Bethune–Cookman. Three days later, in her second game, she scored 34 points in an 80–71 win over

Kent State Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Ashtabula, Burton, East Liverpool, Jackson Township, New Philadelphia, ...

, the most points by a Florida State freshman since Sue Galkantas in 1981. On December 11, Latson scored 34 points again in a 108–51 win over

Texas Southern Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically Black university in Houston. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schoo ...

. She missed the 2023 NCAA tournament with an undisclosed injury. As a freshman, Latson averaged 21.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game and was a first-team All-

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

(ACC) selection. She scored 659 points, the most by a freshman in ACC history, and broke the program record with seven 30-point games. Latson was named ACC Rookie of the Year and set the conference record with 10 Rookie of the Week honors. She won the

USBWA National Freshman of the Year The USBWA National Freshman of the Year, with the men's and women's versions respectively named the Wayman Tisdale Award and Tamika Catchings Award, is an annual basketball award given to college basketball's most outstanding freshman male player ...

and

WBCA Freshman of the Year The WBCA Freshman of the Year is an annual college basketball award presented by Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Ge ...

awards. On March 27, 2025 Latson entered the transfer portal out of Florida State. On April 8, 2025 Latson announced she was transferring to South Carolina.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 31, , 31, , 29.5, , 45.5, , 36.2, , 85.9, , 4.5, , 2.9, , 1.6, , 0.7, , 2.6, , 21.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33, , 33, , 31.0, , 43.8, , 27.0, , 85.3, , 4.2, , 4.2, , 1.5, , 0.5, , 3.0, , style="background:#D3D3D3", 21.4° , - , style="text-align:left;", 2024–25 , style="text-align:left;",

, 29, , 29, , 30.1, , 45.1, , 34.3, , 81.8, , 4.6, , 4.6, , 2.2, , 0.5, , 3.1, , bgcolor=#cfecec, 25.2* , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 93, , 93, , 30.2, , 44.8, , 32.6, , 84.2, , 4.4, , 3.9, , 1.8, , 0.5, , 2.9, , 22.5 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="14", Statistics retrieved from

Sports-Reference Sports Reference, LLC is an American sports statistics company that operates databases of several sports. They include Pro Football Reference for American football, Baseball Reference for baseball, Basketball Reference for basketball, Hockey Ref ...

Off the court

In popular culture

In April 2024, Latson attended

Kelsey Plum Kelsey Christine Plum (born August 24, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Nicknamed "Plum Dawg", she is a three-time WNBA All-Star Game, WNBA All- ...

's second annual Dawg Class, a 3-day camp to help top women college athletes transition from collegiate to professional basketball. The 2024 camp was held at the

IMG Academy IMG Academy is a University-preparatory school, preparatory boarding school and sports training destination in Bradenton, Florida, United States. The organization is set across over 600 acres (243 ha) and features programs consisting of sport ca ...

and sponsored by

Under Armour Under Armour, Inc. is an American sportswear company that manufactures footwear and clothing, apparel headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. History 20th century Under Armour was founded on September 25, 1996, by Kevin Plank, a ...

References

External links

Florida State Seminoles bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Latson, TaNiya Year of birth missing (living people) Living people All-American college women's basketball players American Heritage School (Florida) alumni American women's basketball players Basketball players from Miami Basketball players from Atlanta Florida State Seminoles women's basketball players Guards (basketball) McDonald's High School All-Americans Miami Country Day School alumni Westlake High School (Georgia) alumni