Maryland Eastern Shore guard Ciani Byrom made her presence felt in the championship game of the 2016 FAU Holiday Tournament, leading her team to a 76-59 win over Florida Atlantic on Saturday night.

Byrom consistently stopped every comeback attempt the Owls (4-7) could offer the Hawks (6-3). After seeing her team’s lead dwindle to four points at the end of the third quarter — the closest the Owls got to tying the game since facing a 10-7 deficit three minutes into the game — Byrom scored the first six points of the fourth quarter.

She scored eight of her 25 points in the final quarter and also answered each of the Owls first four baskets in the quarter with one of her own.

FAU trailed by 11 points three minutes into the third quarter, when junior Raven Doyle took over. She scored the Owls next 10 points as they were able to cut the lead to four by the end of the third.

Doyle finished with a team-high 15 points, but was outscored by two Hawks in addition to Byrom.

Mariah McCoy and Moengaroa Subritzky scored 18 and 16 points respectively for Maryland Eastern Shore.

The Hawks outshot the Owls 48 to 34 percent from the floor and made half of their 3-pointers, compared to 26 percent from FAU.

The Owls defeated Jackson State 67-58 on Friday night to reach the final, and the Hawks bested St. Francis 90-82.

FAU will have almost two weeks to regroup before beginning conference play at Western Kentucky on Friday, Dec. 30, at 8 p.m.

Brendan Feeney is the sports editor of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @feeney42.