After heading into the fourth quarter down four points, Florida Atlantic women’s basketball only managed to shoot 36.7 percent and dropped its fourth straight conference game 72-62 to the University of Texas at San Antonio on Thursday night in Boca Raton.

“We left a lot of points off the board [in the fourth quarter],” said head coach Kellie Lewis-Jay. “But we still have to finish shots. We had open looks, from the three, in the paint. We have to finish and we are not finishing plays right now.”

The Roadrunners shot 61.5 percent from the field in the last period, knocking the Owls (4-11, 0-4 Conference USA) down to the last place in the conference standings — tied with Rice University.

“They were getting a lot of offensive rebounds, so that’s an easy look right at the basket,” Lewis-Jay said. “It was a lot of easy looks around the paint and they are going to finish those.”

The Owls were led by junior Sasha Cedeno’s 19 points off the bench.

FAU began the game on the wrong end of a 7-0 run, going 0-for-3 from the field and committing two turnovers. Lewis-Jay, who was searching for something or someone to get going on offense, decided to make a platoon switch at the 7:00 minute mark, subbing out all five starters.

The bench went on to score 12 of the Owls 14 first quarter points, shooting 5-for-9 from the field. They still found themselves down three points heading into the second.

“It was sending a message [to our starters],” said Lewis-Jay. “I don’t think we came out ready to go. The second group came out phenomenally and gave us great energy, and gave us a huge boost. But our starters have to do that for us. I was disappointed in their efforts.”

The Owls shooting turnaround continued in the second period, starting the quarter on a 7-0 run to take their first lead of the game 21-19. The Roadrunners would make an ensuing run of their own, outscoring the Owls 12-2 to regain the lead going into halftime.

Cedeno and freshman Katelyn O’Reilly were the spark off the bench that gave the Owls life in the first half, combining for 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting.

Both teams combined for 25 turnovers in the half.

The Roadrunners started the third quarter hot, knocking down three of their first five shots, and taking a nine-point lead. However, the Owls would answer with a run of their own to cut the lead down to four heading into the fourth.

Despite knocking down 10 3-pointers in the game, the Owls shot 40.7 percent from the field and committed 22 turnovers.

UTSA had three players with 10 points or more, led by Crystal Chidomere’s 25 points on 11-of-17 shooting. The Roadrunners as a team shot 48 percent from the field.

“We have to [bounce back] and we haven’t proven that we can do that yet,” Lewis-Jay said. “We have to go back to the drawing boards, we have to look at the tape, we have to change up some things but we have to come out, have confidence and be ready to play.”

FAU will host UTEP in the second of its two-game homestand, Saturday Jan. 14, at 5 p.m.

Hans Belot Jr. is the sports editor of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him at @Don_Phenom_.