Florida Atlantic women’s basketball traveled to Alabama to take on the University of Alabama at Birmingham in its regular season finale on Saturday.

With a 52-51 FAU (14-15, 6-12 C-USA) lead and one second remaining in regulation, UAB (14-15, 7-11 C-USA) senior forward Brittany Winborne stepped up to the free-throw line for two shots and a chance to win the game. After hitting the back of the rim on her first attempt, FAU women’s head coach Kellie Lewis-Jay called a crucial timeout, icing Winborne with the game on the line.

Winborne missed her second free throw and help FAU escape UAB with its first win in its last six games.

Uncharacteristically, FAU struggled from behind the three-point arc, shooting 2-of-12 after the first quarter of play. Combined with 17 turnovers — eight in the first half — FAU dug itself a hole that it attempted to get out of for nearly three full quarters before turning it around late in the third quarter.

FAU’s key in its win was defense, forcing UAB into 13 turnovers as well as causing the UAB offense to shoot 35.9 percent for the game.

That defense helped keep FAU competitive until the fourth quarter when the Owls sparked their offense. After having had success all season from deep, the team found its stride from behind the three-point arc

The Owls made three 3-pointers in the fourth, including the eventual game winner behind sophomore guard Malia Kency’s only made field goal of the meeting.

FAU finished the game shooting 10-of-31 from the three, extending its new record of made threes to 284 for the season.

Junior guard Kat Wright led FAU in scoring with a game-high 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Senior Guard Morgan Robinson added 11 points.

The two combined for a 7-of-18 performance from behind the three-point arc.

Saturday was the mirror image of FAU’s Thursday matchup versus Middle Tennessee — the Owls led for the first half before struggling and being outscored 42-16 in the second half in a loss.

Against UAB, FAU struggled for much of the first half before its defense limited the Blazers to 17 second-half points.

FAU ends its regular season with a feel-good road win in a close game, giving the Owls some momentum as the Conference USA tournament gets underway on Tuesday, March 8.

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