FAU women’s basketball takes care of Siena in home opener, 83-39
With the win, FAU is now 9-2 in their last 11 home openers.
FAU protects homecourt in their home opener beating the Siena Saints by 44 points. Photo by: Zachary Weinberger
November 20, 2019
In the home opener for FAU women’s basketball, the Owls won against the Siena Saints by a monstrous score of 83-39.
Coming off of a loss to Richmond on Saturday, FAU needed to get back in the win column as they approached a two-game homestand. They got that done and much more.
Sophomore forward Juliette Gauthier shined in front of the FAU crowd racking up a double-double, with 24 points and 12 rebounds. She was deadly from three point range, shooting at a 6-11 clip, making three in the first quarter.
Her performance last night isn’t surprising as she was the second leading freshman in Conference USA, averaging 11.2 points per game. She played 35 minutes, the most from anybody on the Owls.
While the offense was potent from everybody on the team, the defense stood out as FAU started the game not letting Siena make a basket until there was four minutes left in the first quarter.
The leading scorer for the Owls, graduate student Crystal Primm, only had nine points on 3-7 shooting but was active on the glass with eight rebounds.
Despite FAU’s huge halftime lead of 54-17 over the Saints, the Owls in the third quarter were sloppy on both sides of the ball. Siena started off the second half on a 17-0 run while FAU couldn’t find an answer.
The Owls seemed to let their guard down offensively as they only scored 11 points in the third period. They also committed 26 turnovers compared to Siena’s 25.
It was a quick turnaround, however — they scored 18 points in the fourth and allowed Siena to only score three.
The team’s record has improved from last year. They only won five games in the 2018-2019 season. The development of returning players and from transfers like Primm, Lotta Vehka-Aho and Astou Gaye likely have to do with the improvement.
Their next test is against the Little Rock Trojans on Thursday at Abessinio Court at FAU arena where tipoff will be at 7 p.m.
Zachary Weinberger is the sports editor of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @ZachWeinberger.
