FAU Falls in Double OT

Wednesday, January 3

New Orleans, LA.

8:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

4-12, 0-4SBC

New Orleans

7-9, 1-4SBC

OT 1

OT 2

Florida Atlantic

University of New Orleans

1/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Jan. 3, 2007

Final Stats

New Orleans, LA - For fifty minutes on Wednesday night Florida Atlantic University and New Orleans battled back and forth, but it was the Privateers coming out on top in double overtime, 89-86.

"Free throw shooting was a critical factor in our loss today," said Head Coach Chancellor Dugan. "It's hard to win games when you're not hitting from the line, but I'm proud of the team for battling adversity and staying in the match-up until the final horn."

In the second overtime FAU clung to an 86-85 lead with 34 seconds left. La'Della English responded with a lay-up that put the Privateers on top 87-86. With six seconds to play English stole the ball and hit two free-throws to pad UNO's lead to 89-86. Cristal Randolph missed a contested three at the buzzer that would have sent the game to a third extra frame.

Demina Anderson netted a career-best 26 points on a 10-of-19 shooting effort. She also recorded her first double-double this season, snatching a career-high 13 rebounds.

Cristal Randolph also notched a personal-best 19 points off of five triples. She nailed a three with four seconds left in the first overtime that helped send the game to a second extra session. The Owls had a chance to win it at the end of the first OT after Bianca Sellers stole an inbound after the Randolph three, but Brittney Crenshaw was unable to connect from the baseline.

During the second frame, New Orleans erased an early Owl eight point lead by using a 19-1 run to take a 51-41 advantage with 11:37 left. FAU chopped at the deficit and took their first lead since the 15:54 mark in the second on an Anderson lay-up that made the score 64-63 in favor of FAU, with 3:12 remaining in regulation.

With 13 seconds left, English hit two-free throws to give UNO a 71-69 advantage. The Owls stormed down the court and after one miss, got a final shot opportunity with 1.5 seconds to go. Andrea Taylor found Crenshaw at the left block and she tied the game to send it to OT.

The Owls and UNO exchanged leads several times throughout the first-half, as neither team was able to get an advantage over six points. With under seven seconds left, Demina Anderson put back in a missed jump shot from the right baseline too give FAU a narrow 33-32 advantage heading to the half.

Florida Atlantic shot 42.5 percent from the field in the loss. From the charity stripe they were 54.3 percent shooters on a 19-for-35 effort. English led UNO with a career-best 41 points on 12-of-18 shooting. She shot five-of-six from beyond the arc and 12-of-14 from the free-throw line. Talishia Young and Andrea Williams added 17 and 14 points respectively for the Privateers.

FAU is back in action Saturday to take on conference foe South Alabama. The game will tip at 6 p.m. eastern from Mobile, Alabama. All the action be heard for free on fausports.com.