When great teams struggle in any sport, they somehow find ways to pull themselves out of the mess, gain composure, and meet their own expectations. Introduce yourself to the Lady Owls because they’re one of those teams.
They had turned onto a rough road, full of bumps and obstacles, which stood in the way of their success no matter how many wins they put in a row. They could never seem to find the way to keep playing up to their potential. The obstacles crept up on them and hung around them like a hungry tiger waiting in the bushes to attack its prey.
Finally, they had enough of it all.
The Florida Atlantic women’s basketball team (6-9 overall, 4-3 A-Sun) has had their share of ups and downs this season as they lost their first three games, followed them by winning a pair and then lost another three consecutively. It hasn’t stopped there, however – the trend continued up until Jan. 11 with the team at practice the day before playing Troy State at home.
FAU took on Troy State, a struggling team who had lost two key starters over winter break and came into the game losing five games in a row. They ended up beating Troy State by the score of 83-70.
FAU jumped out to a quick 12-9 lead, but the Lady Trojans of Troy State failed to give in and hung around against the spirited Lady Owls team. However, FAU took a 42-39 halftime lead.
In the second half, the women’s team came out stronger than they had in the first. Playing with unity and poise, the Florida Atlantic went on a 10-3 run to open up the second half of action and lead by the score of 50-41. TSU picked up 10 team fouls with 7:02 remaining in the game, which meant that FAU would be shooting two shots on every Troy State foul, for the rest of the game.
When good teams find a weakness, they exploit it and that’s just what the Lady Owls basketball team did. The biggest beneficiary of this was Owls star Tamica Peirce who went 8-for-11 from the free throw line and hit some key free throws late, to seal the victory 83-70.
Peirce led the Lady Owls as usual, offensively scoring 22 points and grabbing 12 boards. She is the team and Atlantic Sun leading scorer, averaging 18.4 points per game.
FAU third year Head Coach Chancellor Dugan has good things to say about Peirce: “I don’t think there’s a better player in the league right now.”
Also for the Lady Owls, Lakeita Lee netted 17 points and Kristy Halvorsen chipped in with 17 points of her own to pace Florida Atlantic in the 13 point victory.
Although the lead changed hands 11 times in the game, FAU was statistically dominant throughout scoring 42 points in the paint.
TSU managed to get 25 points from the bench but it wasn’t enough, since they lost their sixth straight game.
“We basically lost the game from the foul line,” said Lady Trojans Head Coach Jerry Hester, following the tough loss.
The Lady Owls came into the game unraveled and looking for a way to bandage the team up and save their season. This win is just the Band-Aid they needed.
“We didn’t want to go 3-3, we wanted this game and the team really came together tonight,” Coach Dugan said of her team’s performance. “Tonight you saw what we can do when we play hard.”
