BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University women’s basketball team (5-18, 1-11 in Conference USA) dropped a heartbreaker to WKU (16-7, 9-3 in C-USA), 72-69, in overtime. FAU led by three points with 19 seconds left in regulation, but the Lady Toppers tied up the game to send it into the overtime. WKU outscored FAU 7-4 in the extra period, as FAU fell to the Lady Toppers by three. The Owls were led by Rita Pleskevich and Alexa Zaph who tallied 21 points apiece.
HOW IT WAS DECIDED
1Q
The Owls started out Thursday evening’s contest up 4-0, but WKU quickly answered with a 7-0 run. At the media timeout, the Lady Toppers had the slight edge over FAU, 9-6. Both teams were held in a scoring drought for nearly three minutes until WKU drilled down a 3-pointer. Pleskevich would answer for FAU with a mid-range jumper followed by a 3-poniter to trail WKU by one with a minute left in the first. WKU led FAU by one, 12-11, after the first quarter.
2Q
Pleskevich continued to light it up from the field, opening up the quarter with a jump shot and a triple, as the Owls retook the lead, 16-12, two minutes into the quarter. After a three-minute drought by FAU, Pleskevich delivered another jump shot, as the Owls led 18-15 with 4:53 left in the half. At that point, Pleskevich had logged 14 of the Owls’ 18 points. WKU tallied four turnovers in two minutes, but FAU could not take advantage of those mistakes until Zaph came up with a floater to extend FAU’s lead to five. The Owls outscored the Lady Toppers, who are the best scoring offense in C-USA, 14-5 in the second quarter to lead 25-17 going into the locker room. Pleskevich tallied 12 of her points in the second frame, with her 19 first-half points being more than WKU was able to log in the first half, while being held to 25.9 percent shooting.
3Q
The Lady Toppers came out of the intermission outscoring the Owls 14-7 to cut the FAU’s lead to one with six minutes left in the third. FAU began to have troubles taking care of the ball, committing four turnovers in three minutes. At the media timeout, FAU had the slight edge, 34-33 with 4:22 left in the third. WKU then tied the game at 38 off a triple with under three minutes left in the quarter. Zaph delivered a layup to put the Owls back ahead. Amber Gaston followed with two free throws, as the Owls led 42-38. WKU cut the Owls’ lead back to one following another 3-pointer, but just before the end of the quarter, Nikola Ozola buried a 3-pointer and the Owls went into the final quarter up 45-41.
4Q
The Owls tallied the first of their nine points in the quarter from the charity stripe, including three from Sofia Galeron who was fouled on a 3-point attempt. Both teams were in the bonus before the halfway point in the quarter. Galeron then fed a pass to Ozola who knocked down a jumper and with 3:44 left in the game, FAU led 56-53. Zaph came up with a huge layup, but WKU would answer with a triple, as the Owls led by two.
Gaston delivered a layup on the other end and FAU led 60-56 with 2:14 remaining in the game, but WKU quickly answered with a 3-point play. The Lady Toppers took the lead, 61-60, with 1:22 left in the game. On the Owls’ next possession, Zaph continued to be aggressive to the basket, delivering a layup, while being fouled in the process. Zaph then hit two free throws with 19 seconds left in the game to put the Owls up 65-62. WKU then answered with a layup to cut the Owls’ lead to one, 65-64, with 11.7 seconds left. On the Owls’ next possession, WKU came up with a big defensive stop with nine seconds remaining and on a layup attempt, the Lady Topper was fouled. She hit one of two free throws to tie the game at 65 and send the game into overtime.
OT
WKU scored the first points of the overtime period with a layup off a steal and followed with a layup after multiple misses. Kuykendoll pulled up with a tough jumper as the shot clock was expiring for the Owls’ first points in the overtime period. The Owls trailed 69-67 with 50.3 seconds left in overtime. Out of the timeout, FAU tried to draw up a play to tie or take the lead, but a Zaph turnover would then send WKU back to the line. The Lady Toppers made one of two free throws to give the Owls another chance and Kynadi Kuykendoll found a wide open lane for a layup. FAU could not get a good look at the end and fell, 72-69 in overtime.
GAME NOTES
- Pleskevich logged her second 20+ point game of the season after tallying 21 points and nine rebounds to finish just shy of a double-double
- Zaph also registered a 20+ point game with 21 points off 5-for-13 shooting from the field and 11-for-11 from the charity stripe. She also tallied seven boards
- Galeron registered her 14th consecutive game with a three-pointer and finished the night with six points and four boards
- Kuykendoll delivered eight points, two assists and two steals
- The Owls held one of the best scoring offenses in C-USA to 32.9 percent shooting from the field and 20% from beyond the arc
GAME NOTES
“We weren’t able to close it out in the end of regulation,” said head coach Jennifer Sullivan. “I thought box outs hurt us late and crashing the boards. We will regroup, but I think we have shown that we can compete with anyone in our league, so we will just get back to practicing and trying to finish games.”
UP NEXT
The Owls will hit the road to face North Texas on Thursday, Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. Eastern. FAU will be back at home against Charlotte on Thursday, Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. Tickets for the game can be purchased here or by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS.
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