Women’s Basketball: FAU falls short of fourth quarter comeback against MTSU

The loss snaps a two-game winning streak for the Owls

Max Jackson

FAU forward Kat Wright (13) drives to the net looking for an opening to develop during the Owls’ 84-73 win on Jan. 7. Max Jackson | Staff Photographer

Chris Libreros, Contributing Writer
March 3, 2016

Florida Atlantic’s women’s basketball team looked to notch its third consecutive win against the third place team in Conference USA, Middle Tennessee, on the road Thursday night.

Middle Tennessee (20-8, 14-3 C-USA) came into Thursday’s matchup only losing once in its last 10 games and was fresh off a 79-73 victory over Marshall.

The Owls’ (13-15, 5-12 C-USA) winning streak came to an end Thursday night following a 71-65 loss.

Despite leading by ten at halftime, the Owls had to claw their way back into the game after trailing for much of the second half following a rough third quarter in which FAU was outscored 21-9.

Middle Tennessee can attribute much of this win to its performance in the second half — the Blue Raiders outscored FAU 42-26.

The Owls were within two points when a 3-pointer from FAU senior guard Ali Gorrell made the score 67-65.

That comeback would fall short after MTSU freshman guard Abbey Sissom hit a clutch three with 20 seconds remaining to push the lead back to five and close the game for Middle Tennessee for the program’s 20th victory of the year.

Senior FAU guard Morgan Robinson led FAU offensively, scoring 17 and shooting 5-of-8 from three-point range, including two buzzer beating three-point field goals in the first half — one of which was a half-court shot to end the half.

Turnovers played a role in FAU’s loss — the team turned the ball over 19 times, resulting in 19 points for the opposition.

Middle Tennessee saw much of its success come from ball movement, with 18 assists resulting in five players scoring double figures, led by freshman forward Alex Johnson’s 14 points.

FAU will look to bounce back in its regular season finale against a struggling University of Alabama at Birmingham team in the midst of a three-game losing streak on Saturday, March 5 at 2 p.m.

Christopher Libreros is a contributing writer with the University Press. To contact him on this or other stories, he can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter.