FAU women’s basketball (9-3, 2-1 C-USA) earned their first conference loss of the season in a 74-45 at the hands of the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) Blazers (9-4, 1-3 C-USA) Thursday night at Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Ala. 

“All I can say is our performance tonight was disappointing,” said head coach Jennifer Sullivan. “Defending UAB from the three-point line was a major key to our game plan and we did not do a good job in that area.”

The Owls’ struggles began early on as the Blazers took a 13-5 lead on back-to-back three-pointers by junior guard Margaret Whitley. Minutes later, Whitley sank another three-pointer sparking an 11-4 scoring run in the final 3:21 of the first quarter, leaving UAB ahead 24-13. 

With 5:47 in the second quarter, junior guard Jada Moore drew a foul and made one-of-two attempts from the free-throw line, slimming the Blazers lead to seven—the smallest margin FAU would trail by for the rest of the night. 

In the final 5:39 of the second quarter, UAB went on another scoring run to extend their lead to 20 points at halftime. Graduate guard Lyndsey Robson capped the 13-point run with a layup as time expired in the second half, leaving the Blazers ahead 40-20.

At halftime, the Owls were struggling shooting the ball from just about everywhere on the floor; 31% from the field, 50% from the free-throw line, and had missed all seven of their attempts from three-point range. 

FAU’s struggles made their way into the second half as the Blazers extended their lead to as much as 27 in the third quarter. FAU especially had trouble defending the three in the third quarter, allowing the Blazers to make five attempts from deep in that quarter alone. 

Redshirt senior forward Janeta Rozentale, whose stellar performance was one of few bright spots for the Owls, continued her solid night with a second-chance layup off an offensive rebound, moving the score to 64-42 with 7:08 to play. 

Even with their already-large lead, the Blazers continued to pour it on late in the fourth quarter. With 24 seconds left in regulation, the Blazers made their 11th three-pointer of the night, leaving them with their largest lead of the night at 28, which they held for the remainder of the game. 

Their inability to shoot the ball efficiently characterized the Owls’ performance during the game. 

As a team, FAU shot just 29.9% from the field and 17.6% from three-point range, while allowing the Blazers to shoot 43.3% from the field and go 11-for-32 from deep. Rozentale ended the night as the Owls’ leading scorer with 11 points, along with four rebounds and an assist. 

“The next big step for our team will be beating good teams on the road. We look forward to another opportunity to do that on Saturday,” said Sullivan.

The Owls will now prepare for the second stop on their four-game road which is a matchup with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte 49ers (6-7, 2-2 C-USA) on Saturday, Jan. 7. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN+. 

Cameron Priester is the Sports Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @PriesterCameron