Florida Atlantic women’s basketball fought late to make a comeback, but was unable to contain the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles’ offense in Thursday night’s 89-80 loss.

The scoring started early as the Owls (10-5, 2-2 Conference USA) and Southern Miss combined for 51 first quarter points. FAU struggled to keep up after allowing 22 points in the following two quarters.

USM (9-6, 3-1 Conference USA) finished the game making 62.1 percent of its shots, including 7-of-11 from behind the three-point arc. The Owls made only 37.7 percent of their field goal attempts on the night.

After carrying a 14-point lead into the fourth quarter, the Golden Eagles did not let up and stretched their lead to as high as 17. Florida Atlantic would put up a final fight as it cut the lead down to seven points with 30 seconds left in the game after a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Nika Zyryanova, but that’s as close as the Owls would get.

Florida Atlantic redshirt senior guard Ali Gorrell scored a game-high 25 points. Sophomore forward Sasha Cedeno was the only other Owl to reach double-digit points — she finished with 14, nine of which came in the first quarter.

The Golden Eagles had six players with at least 10 points each, led by 20 from junior guard Brittanny Dinkins. She was joined by freshman center Caitlin Jenkins, who recorded 14 points and 15 rebounds.

The Owls will take on Louisiana Tech next on Saturday, Jan. 16, on the road.

Brendan Feeney is the sports editor of the University Press. To contact him on this or other stories, he can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter.