On Monday, Florida Atlantic Owls women’s basketball (3-1) defeated the Stetson University Hatters (1-4) 50-39.
Senior guard Jada Moore’s 16 points, six rebounds and three assists led the team during the Owls’ 19-point fourth quarter comeback. The defense allowed only two points in the fourth, a program record for the least points allowed in the fourth quarter.
“Just so proud of our kids,” said head coach Jennifer Sullivan. “We were down for a large stretch of the game. I don’t think we ever once thought we were going to lose the game.”
The game started with multiple turnovers by both teams. The Owls recovered after being down 6-2 early in the first quarter to tie the game with graduate forward Janeta Rozentale’s four points.
Moore threw a pass across the court for a wide open Rozentale to put the Owls up 15-10. Stetson redshirt junior guard Khamya McNeal sank a three-point shot at the buzzer to end the first quarter 15-13.
The Hatters started the second quarter going on a 5-0 run before sophomore center Dyllan Hanna ended the run.
With the Owls unable to score a point in a little over two minutes, the Hatters ended the first half with a 29-22 lead.
FAU was 0-4 from behind the arc, shooting 45% from the field and had no second chance points. The bench was outmatched 18-8 points, and both FAU and Stetson had 10 turnovers.
“Keep grinding it out. Don’t get discouraged because the game got ugly. We kind of anticipated an ugly game and that’s what we got, and we were able to come to the other side of it,” said Sullivan.
Coming out of halftime, the Owls were quickly down 31-24. Both teams were on a scoring drought, each with shot clock violations. After a couple of free throw shots, the Owls cut the lead to four and forced a turnover. Senior guard Jordan Peete’s corner three put the Hatters back up six, 34-28.
After a free throw by Rozentale, the third quarter ended with the Hatters leading 37-31.
Sophomore guard Aniya Hubbard’s buzzer-beating three-pointer and Moore’s jump shot put the Owls within one to start the fourth quarter. Hubbard’s two free throws put the Owls up front, changing the lead for the seventh time.
“Offense comes with defense. If we get a stop on defense, then we can go take off in transition, we can go do what we want to do, we control the game now. Once we got those back-to-back stops, it was huge for us. We just kept building off of that and we got a lot of momentum,” said Moore.
Moore and Hubbard’s combined layups and jumper put the Owls on a 13-point run, causing the Hatters to call a timeout. Stetson redshirt senior guard Jamiya Turner’s offensive rebound ended the Owls’ 19-point unanswered run.
“Defense. Defense is what’s going to win the game. 19-2 run tells it,” said Sullivan. “We were getting stops. I thought they did a great job blocking on the personnel, what we have to do defensively. That’s going to be a big part of our identity, it has to be whenever shots aren’t falling, it’s defense. Just credit to our team–19-2 run in the fourth quarter, that’s huge.”
FAU was shooting 37% from the field and 9% from behind the arc and had nine second chance points at the end of the game.
The Owls will be on the road to face Kennesaw State University Owls (1-3) on Saturday, Nov. 25 at 2 p.m.
Maddox Greenberg is the Sports Editor for the University Press. Email [email protected] or DM via Twitter @MaddoxGreenberg and Instagram @maddoxblade04 for information regarding this or other stories
