Women’s Basketball: FAU falls to first place UAB 90-57

The 90 points they surrendered is a season-high allowed by the Owls

FAU senior forward Melinda Myers (50) defends against Mercer senior forward Alex Williams (22) on Nov. 12, 2017. Lauren Sopourn | Contributing Photographer

Matt Brown, Contributing Writer

FAU Women’s Basketball failed to win its third straight game in a 90-57 loss to UAB Saturday

The 33-point margin of victory is the worst allowed by the Owls (10-8, 4-3 C-USA) since losing by 34 in last season’s 89-55 loss to Rice on Feb. 11, 2017.

The victory lets the Blazers (17-3, 6-1 C-USA) take control of first place in the conference. They are tied with Western Kentucky at 6-1 overall, but hold the tiebreaker after defeating them 79-61 back on Jan. 13.

After shooting 58 percent in the first half, including over 45 percent from three-point range, the Blazers took a 46-26 lead into the break, never trailing once.

The 90 points scored by the Blazers was their second highest of the season, after scoring 105 against Tuskegee on Dec. 30, 2017.

The Owls were led by junior forward Ra’Kyra Gabriel who had her second game with over 20 points in a row. She had a team-high 24 points and shot 4-of-5 from three-point range.

After only hitting three total 3-pointers in her entire career, Gabriel has made nine total in the last four games. She also had seven boards, one steal, a block and an assist.

Redshirt junior guard Danneal Ford had 16 points. She also grabbed five rebounds and dished out seven assists.  

In her first start of the season, senior forward Melinda Myers had seven points, seven rebounds and two assists.

The Owls next game is at Western Kentucky on Saturday. Feb. 3 at 3:00 p.m.

Matt Brown is a contributing writer with the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @mattyb407.