C-USA Championship Begins Tomorrow

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The 2022 Heritage Landscape Supply Group Conference USA Championship is slated to begin tomorrow at the Ford Center at the Star. Florida Atlantic University women's basketball team (5-24, 1-17 in C-USA) is looking to make some noise in the tournament, set to face FIU (14-15, 6-12 in C-USA) for the third time in six days. No. 7 East seed FAU will go head-to-head with No. 6 East seed FIU in the play-in game at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. Coverage of the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

About the Owls

FAU is the No. 7 seed in the East, set to face No. 6E FIU in the play-in game on Tuesday at the Ford Center at the Star for the 2022 Heritage Landscape Supply Group Conference USA Championship
Rita Pleskevich was chosen as a C-USA Honorable Mention selection the eve before the start of the tournament
The Owls will face the Panthers for the third time in the last six days
Janeta Rozentale leads the Owls with a near double-double of 11.4 points and 8.3 rebounds per game
Kynadi Kuykendoll leads the way with 2.7 assists per game (76 total)
FAU has four Owls averaging double digits in scoring (Rozentale, Pleskevich, Alexa Zaph and Amber Gaston)
Jennifer Sullivan leads the Owls in her first season at the helm and will coach her first postseason contest as a head coach
FAU stands at No. 4 in free throw percentage (.739) in C-USA

FAU Conference Tournament/Postseason History

The Owls are 1-7 in C-USA Championship games
FAU won its first C-USA Tournament game last season with a 72-66 win over UAB in the Opening Round to advance to the semifinals for the first time since belonging in C-USA and first since 2012 when the Owls were in the Sun Belt. The Owls beat North Texas 56-55 in the 2012 Sun Belt Championship
The Owls came close to knocking off No. 2W seed UTEP in the quarterfinals last season, but fell short, 74-67
FAU's last and lone WNIT appearance came in 2012 when the Owls faced USF in the first round, but lost 76-20
The Owls last won a conference championship in 2005,being crowned ASUN Champions. This was their lone conference title
FAU loss to LSU 72-48 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 2005. This represents the Owls last and only NCAA appearance in school history

Last Time Out

FAU dropped to FIU for the second time last week, 72-56 in Miami
The Owls kept it close in the first half, trailing FIU 35-31 at the intermission, but FAU was outscored 37-25 in the second half
Zaph led the Owls off the bench with 14 points off 6-for-12 shooting
Pleskevich and Amber Gaston registered 10 points each
Bre Beck had four points, four boards and three steals in her second consecutive start
Nikola Ozola earned her first start of the season

Scouting FIU

FIU was chosen to finish seventh in the C-USA Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's head coaches
Kyla Nelson leads the Panthers with 12.3 points per game and buries 2.4 3-pointers per game
Emerald Ekpiteta pulls down a team's most 6.8 rebounds per game
Tanajah Hayes has a team's most 91 assists, which averages out to 3.6 APG

Series History vs. Panthers

Tuesday's game marks the third time in six days the in-state rivals will go head to head
FAU has a long history with FIU, trailing in the all-time series 35-16
The first meeting between the two teams was on Jan. 28, 1985. FAU lost to FIU in the first 10 games, but beat FIU for the first time in 1996 in a 71-64 feat in Hammond, Louisiana
FAU and FIU are 5-5 in the last 10 meetings of the series
The Owls are on a three-game losing streak to the Panthers, previously dropping last week's two outings, 73-55 on Wednesday at home and 72-56 on Saturday in Miami
FAU is 9-16 at home, 5-20 away and 1-1 on a neutral site vs. the Panthers
In the Owls' last game against FIU on Saturday in Miami, FAU fell 72-56. Three Owls reached double digits, led by Zaph who tallied 14 points (6-for-12) and Rita Pleskevich and Amber Gaston, who each logged 10

An Owl Win Means

FAU will win a conference tournament game for the second consecutive season
The team will end an 11-game losing streak
FAU will snap a three-game skid against FIU
The Owls will win their first neutral site game in their first neutral game of the season
Sullivan will earn her C-USA Tournament win on her first try

Upcoming

With an Owl win, FAU will move on to face Southern Miss in the Opening Round of the C-USA Championship on Wednesday. That game is set to tipoff at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Owls on Social Media

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Players Mentioned

Bre Beck

Amber Gaston

Kynadi Kuykendoll

Nikola Ozola

Rita Pleskevich

Janeta Rozentale

Alexa Zaph

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Florida Atlantic University Athletics