Saturday, February 04, 2006

BOCA RATON, Fla. (February 4, 2006) - Trailing 50-28 at the half, the Lady Bucs rallied to get within seven in the second frame, but their comeback efforts fell short as Florida Atlantic topped ETSU, 85-76, Saturday in FAU Gymnasium.

FAU's Shontavia Williams led the way for the winners, posting an impressive 21-point, 14-rebound double double, as her team moved to 11-8, 10-2 in the A-Sun, while ETSU dropped to 12-7, 8-4 in conference.

The Owls held a 15-to-5 lead at the 12:32 mark and continued the offensive outburst to build a 50-to-28 advantage at the break. With the score 25-to-22, the Owls went on a 25-to-6 run over the final 5:21 of the first frame to post their largest halftime point total of the season.

Williams scored 13, of her game-high 21 points in the first half and Missy Glaser went 4-of-5 from the floor to add 12 of her 17 points in the opening stanza.

Coming off a career performance against Kennesaw State, Amanda Bulin picked up right where she left off adding nine first half points.

ETSU cut the lead to nine, 58-49, at the 13:09 mark of the second half as Kelly Turman (Atlanta, Ga.) converted one of her five field goals on the afternoon.

The Bucs got it down to seven, 78-71 with 2:14 to play, but never got any closer as FAU has now won five straight games to improve to 10-2 in the conference.

The Owls dominated the rebounding battle 42-to-30 and converted 12 second chance points in the game. Freshman Brittney Crenshaw scored a career-high 13 points to go along with six rebounds for FAU.

Candace Gibson (Warner Robins, Ga.) and B.J. Banjo (Baltimore, Md.) scored 16 points each for the Bucs, who now dropped two straight games and three out of their last four decisions.

The Bucs return to the court February 9 against Jacksonville. Tip time is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. from the Memorial Center.