BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University women’s basketball team (4-10, 0-3 in Conference USA) was unable to pull out its first league win of the season, dropping to UAB (10-5, 2-2 in C-USA) on Saturday afternoon, 82-65. FAU trailed UAB by just two points at halftime, but a 49-point second half by UAB pushed the Blazers ahead for good. Janeta Rozentale led the Owls with a career-high 21 points.
HOW IT WAS DECIDED
1Q
The Owls made their first two basket attempts of the game, but then went 0-for-8 from the field to trail 6-4 halfway through the quarter. Alexa Zaph then started to heat up to break the Owls’ scoring drought with a layup courtesy of her left hand. Down 11-9, Zaph came up with another layup to tie the game at 11 at the media timeout with 3:42 left in the first. FAU ended the quarter in a scoring drought for nearly four minutes, while UAB went on a 6-0 run. The Owls trailed 17-11.
2Q
Sofia Galeron fed the ball to Kynadi Kuykendoll to open up the quarter and break their four-minute scoring drought. When FAU started to find a groove on offense, UAB would answer on the other end until Galeron knocked down her second 3-pointer, which initiated an 8-0 Owl run. Rozentale tied the game with a triple just before the media timeout, as both teams were knotted up at 26 with four minutes left in the first half. Out of the media timeout, Galeron knocked down her third triple of the game to extend the Owls’ run to 11-0. The remaining three minutes of the game saw two ties and UAB ended the half with a slight 33-31 edge.
3Q
The Owls’ only points in the opening minutes was two free throws from Rita Pleskevich. FAU then fell in a scoring drought for over two minutes while UAB went 4-for-4 from the field. Rozentale then made a nice move to the basket for a layup to break the Owls’ scoring drought. Following a Rozentale triple, FAU trailed 47-38 with 4:47 remaining in the third frame. UAB then cruised on a 6-2 run to lead by 13, 53-40. UAB committed three turnovers in a little over a minutes, but the Blazers ended the quarter on a 5-2 run to lead the Owls 58-45. UAB outscored FAU 25-14 in the third quarter.
4Q
With 7:43 left in the game, the Owls rolled on a 7-0 run to cut UAB’s lead to six following a second-chance triple made by Galeron, her fourth of the game. That was the closest FAU would get to the Blazers, as UAB went on to outscore FAU 20-9 in the remainder of the game. The Owls dropped the contest, 82-65.
GAME NOTES
- Rozentale earned her first career 20+ point game after logging a career-high 21 points with six rebounds and a career-high five steals. She logged 16 of her points in the second half
- Zaph had a great showing on Saturday with 17 points and four boards
- Galeron shot 4-for-7 from beyond the arc, her second consecutive game with four triples. She ended with 12 points and four rebounds
- Pleskevich was just shy of double digit numbers, ending with nine points
- Kuykendoll tallied six points and four assists
- The Owls shot 12-13 from the charity stripe for 92%
- FAU limited turnovers to just nine, which is a season-best mark
UP NEXT
The Owls will be on the road for the next three games, starting with a contest at Old Dominion on Monday at 1:30 p.m. FAU will be back home to face UTEP on Jan. 27 at 6 p.m. Tickets for the game can be purchased here or by calling 1-866-FAU-OWLS.
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