FAU Women’s Basketball C-USA Play Kicks Off at Middle Tennessee

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University women’s basketball team (2-2) will take on its first Conference USA series of the season at Middle Tennessee (2-3) this weekend. The Owls will begin the series on New Year’s Day with tipoff set for 7 p.m. (EST), while closing out the weekend with a 3 p.m. (EST) tilt on Saturday at the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro.

ABOUT THE OWLS

  • FAU opens C-USA play on the road at Middle Tennessee for a weekend series. The Owls will look to stay in the win column and take down the Lady Raiders for the first time since 2009 and just the second time in school history
  • The team is coming off a 104-73 win over Florida Memorial. FAU saw six players in double digits, while tallying the third most rebounds (64), fourth most field goals (40) and fourth most assists (26) in a single game in program history
  • Head coach Jim Jabir is in his fourth season at the helm with his 2020-21 team being made up of one redshirt freshman, eight sophomores, six juniors, one senior and one graduate student
  • Iggy Allen leads the team with 21.0 points, 8.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.3 steals per game. Allie Tylka is also averaging double digits with 11.5 points per game and Alexa Zaph follows with 10.0 points per game, while being tied for the most assists with 13. Janeta Rozentale averages 8.3 rebounds per game, while having a team’s most six blocks
  • FAU leads C-USA in scoring offense (83.5 PPG), rebounding offense (48.0 RPG), offensive rebounds (20.0 ORPG) and offensive rebound percentage (.423)

HISTORY AGAINST THE LADY RAIDERS

  • The 27th and 28th meeting between the two squads will take place this weekend
  • FAU has won once, trailing 1-25 in the series
  • The Owls lost an 81-66 game on the road in Murfreesboro last season. Astou Gaye led the team with a double-double (24 points and 16 rebounds)
  • FAU’s lone win came in 2009 with a 73-70 feat at home. The Owls have lost 19 straight vs. the Lady Raiders
  • The Owls are 1-12 at home and 0-13 on the road in the series

SCOUTING MIDDLE TENNESSEE

  • MT was projected to win the conference with eight first-place votes
  • Sister duo Anastasia Hayes and Aislynn Hayes were picked to the C-USA All-Conference Team, as voted on by the league’s head coaches
  • Anastasia Hayes is the Co-C-USA Preseason Player of the Year and has lived up to the hype through her first five games. The guard is leading the conference with 28.8 points per game, which leads the country. She also averages 7.8 rebounds per game and has 28 assists and 10 steals
  • Courtney Whitson leads the team in rebounds with 9.0 boards per game
  • Alexis Whittington (13.2 PPG), Deja Cage (12.4 PPG) and Aislynn Hayes (12.0 PPG) also average double digits in scoring
  • MT leads the league in 3-point field goals made per game (11.0) and assist/turnover ratio (1.02)

LAST TIME OUT

  • Six Owls tallied double digits in FAU’s 104-73 win over Florida Memorial. The Owls scored the most points in a game since 2014 (111-76, Webber International)
  • Allen led the Owls for the third consecutive game. She tallied 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists
  • Amber Gaston had her best game of the season, going a perfect 7-7 from the field to tally 14 points and a block and steal
  • Tylka followed with 13 points and a career-high seven boards
  • Rozentale recoded 13 points and six boards, while Zaph posted 12 points, three assists and four steals
  • Gaye tallied nine points, 14 boards and four steals, while Rita Pleskevich and Nikola Ozola both had four dimes
  • FAU earned the third most rebounds (64), fourth most field goals (40) and fourth most assists (26) in a single game in program history

UPCOMING
FAU’s home C-USA opener will take place on Friday Jan. 8 at 5 p.m. against Old Dominion. The series will close on Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets may be purchased here. All tickets for home games will be delivered digitally on individual mobile devices. Season tickets may be purchased through the ticket office by calling 1-800-FAU-OWLS (866-328-6957) or emailing tickets@fau.edu.

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