Owls Overcome by UTSA Offense in the Fourth

Thursday, January 12

Boca Raton, Fla.

7:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

-411, 04 CUSA

UTSA

-78, 31 CUSA

UTSA

Florida Atlantic

1/12/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Jan. 12, 2017

Box Score

Boca Raton, Fla. -

Box Score

Florida Atlantic University women's basketball (4-11, 0-4 C-USA) was overcome by the UTSA offense in the fourth quarter as the Owls fell 72-62 to the Roadrunners (7-8, 3-1 C-USA) on Thursday night.

On the Court with Coach Jay:

"I thought our energy was better. I thought our intensity was better for 40 minutes, but I think we still have to finish shots. We left a lot of points on the board, especially in the fourth quarter where we had open looks," said Head Women's Basketball Coach Kellie Lewis-Jay. "We have to know their tendencies. We have to know the scout, and we have to play it for 40 minutes. We have to go back to the drawing board tomorrow. We have to look at tape. We have to be ready for them (UTEP). We have to come out and have confidence and be ready to play."

The Finish:

The Owls' offense was sluggish to begin the fourth as the first field goal came from Nika Zyryanova at the 8:30 mark. The teams exchanged baskets until UTSA went on a 6-0 run over the next 1:33 to go up by nine. Sasha Cedeno refused to give up as she hit back-to-back 3-pointers and FAU attempted a late run that fell just short. The Roadrunners closed things out in the final minute with two points from both Crystal Chidomere and Loryn Goodwin.

The Breakdown:

The Roadrunners held the Owls scoreless through the first 3:05 as UTSA saw five rebounds to FAU's one. The Owls then went on a run as Raven Doyle and Katelyn O'Reilly brought down two apiece and Cedeno hit one from downtown. The junior added three more to bring FAU within three with 3:16 left. The Owls saw another three scoreless minutes until Ra'Kyra Gabriel ended the quarter with two. UTSA saw seven second-chance points and went into the second up 17-14.

At 8:43 in the second quarter, freshman guard Julia Jenike tied things up at 19 with a 3-pointer from the corner off an across court pass from Malia Kency. O'Reilly then gave FAU its first lead of the night with a hard drive to the basket for two. Those baskets were the start of a 9-0 run for the Owls over the next 2:20 while holding UTSA to zero field goals and forcing three turnovers in three minutes. The Roadrunners responded as they put up a 10-0 run over the next 1:54. FAU put up five more points, but UTSA's Chidomere scored in the final seconds to put the visitors up 35-32 at the half. FAU shot 53.8 percent from the floor and an impressive 57.1 percent from the 3-point line on 4-of-7.

The third quarter was not much different from the first two as UTSA earned 15 points to FAU's 14. The Owls narrowed the lead to 45-41 as they went 4-for-5 from 8:15-4:34 with Doyle leading the way with four points. The Owls then held the Roadrunners scoreless for just over three minutes as Cedeno went 2-for-2 for five points. Chidomere widened the UTSA lead 50-46 in the final minute off a layup.

"Nothing But Net" Notables:

Cedeno had a team-leading 19 points as she shot 7-of-13 from the floor and 5-of-9 from the perimeter. The junior guard also tacked on five rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block.
O'Reilly saw her 11^th game this season shooting 50 percent or better as she came away with 4-of-6 including five rebounds, two assists and one takeaway. Zyryanova also had a solid outing with 10 points, six of which came from the 3-point line.
Nine of the 10 players who saw the floor had at least one rebound with four players claiming five including Raven Doyle and Gabriel.
This is the first game this season that the Owls did not outscore their opponent in at least one quarter. FAU also saw 22 turnovers to UTSA's 17, which allowed the Roadrunners 18 points off takeaways.
UTSA had three players hit double-digit scoring with Chidomere tops (25 points) followed by Tesha Smith, who saw a double-double (20 points and 10 rebounds), and finally Kiejdrowska (14 points).

What's Next:

The team will remain at home to host UTEP on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 5 p.m. For ticket information, please call 1-866-FAU-OWLS or visit FAUsports.com.